Sharma, Kapur start well in Jeddah; Johnson pulls out

India's Shubhankar Sharma, who got off to a great start on the DP World Tour with a top-10 finish in Abu Dhabi, had another impressive start in the Saudi International as he carded three-under 67 and was tied ninth alongside compatriot Shiv Kapur in the Asian Tour event.

Gaganjeet Bhullar shot three-over 73, while among other Indians Rashid Khan was one-under through 15 holes, Anirban Lahiri was one-over through 15 and Ajeetesh Sandhu was one-over through 13 and Veer Ahlawat was seven-over through 13.

Sharma started with three pars and then had two birdies, followed by a bogey as he played the front nine in one-under 34. On the back nine he birdied twice for three-under total.

Kapur, returning from a layoff due to injury, had six birdies against three bogeys for 67.

The tournament suffered a setback as American Dustin Johnson withdrew ahead of the first round after tweaking his back.

Mexico's Abraham Ancer shot seven-under-par 63 to take the clubhouse lead at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club. Colombian Sebastian Munoz carded 64 while Spain's Sergio Garcia, South African Louis Oosthuizen and Cameron Young from the United States shot 65 each.

Zimbabwe's Scott Vincent, last year's International Series Order of Merit winner, and another Asian Tour regular Ian Snyman from South Africa came shot 66 each.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)