Congaree Maintenance (USA), Jun 11 (IANS): India's Anirban Lahiri, Satoshi Kodaira of Japan and Chinese Taipei's C.T. Pan carded matching scores of two-under 69 to be among those in a share of 31st position after the first round of Palmetto Championship on Thursday.

But it was Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who shot his lowest score in nearly two years with a 4-under 67, to be the top Asian player as he moved into a share of seventh place after first day.

World No. 1 Dustin Johnson established himself in second position on the leaderboard alongwith Doc Redman after carding six-under 65. Wes Roach was on top with seven-under 64. All three are Americans.

Despite failing to birdie any of the three par-5 holes at the course, Johnson made six birdies and no bogeys. The last birdie came off a chip from 81 feet at the ninth hole.

"Yeah, I mean, you know, I am playing well," said the 24-time winner Johnson later.

"I feel like I have been playing pretty good all year, just, like I said, I have not putted well, short game has been a little off, but today I missed it in the right spots when I did miss it, but hit a lot of real quality iron shots and gave myself a lot of looks," he added.