Lahiri tied 10th on Day 1 of Hero World Challenge

Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open, led the PGA Tour with five victories, took the FedEx Cup and was selected the player of the year. Haas, one of the sponsor exemptions for the tournament hosted by Tiger Woods, also had a 66.

Walker made it a three-way tie at the top as he carded seven birdies against two bogeys in a 67, while Chris Kirk reeled off five consecutive birdies around the turn and picked up one more shot at 14 before completing a 65 that lifted him to 10 under. “And then you hear the noise of, ‘He’s a good player but he can’t close, ‘ and this and that”.

He originally was penalized one shot for marking his ball off the green at the par-5 third, only for the penalty to be rescinded when officials determined it was too hard on some holes to determine where the putting surface ended.

Spieth is wrapping up a big year, and he seems intent on going out in style.

“Each time you don’t come through, you wonder, ‘Is it me? But when I have done some thinking, in my mind I can certainly improve in spots of my game”.

He didn’t get much help from the crowd reaction, mainly because there wasn’t much of a crowd. “I feel confident that we can get the job done no matter where we are now”. “I started walking because balls have been sticking on the green so I thought it just stuck, but I guess it just crept forward that extra two feet”, the 22-year-old Texan said.

Talking about playing with Spieth, Lahiri said, “We have been good friends”.

After securing par on the first, he grabbed his six-iron for the 172-yard second hole and promptly sunk it. “Obviously just 18 guys and we’re traveling to some of the coolest courses to play whether it was Sherwood (the tournament’s former home in California) or Isleworth or here”.

Walker, who has been working with his swing coach Butch Harmon on a different head move, was delighted to rebound from a missed cut at the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan last month with a scintillating eight-birdie display at Albany. “But it’s still world ranking points, it’s still a nice purse and a quality field that you need to really practice to try and beat”.

“It’s cool. It’s been just under a week in what we started doing and it’s still something I’ve got to think about”.