Anirban Lahiri came closer to ensuring a PGA Tour card after carding a three-under 68 to lie tied 19th on the opening day of Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco at the Hillcrest Country Club here.
Lahiri was four shots behind co-leaders, Grayson Murray and Charlie Saxon who carded rounds of 7-under 64.
Lahiri, who came onto the Tour through the Korn Ferry Finals route in 2015, has since managed to retain his card each year till this year he finished 178th on FedExCup standings and went back to the Korn Ferry Finals.
His T-7 in the first event, the Nationwide Children's Hospital Open, does put him in a strong position as he currently stands Tied-sixth in the separate Money list for the finals, from where Top-25 will get a card.
A Top-20 finish will lock the card as it will likely take his KFT Finals Points tally from current 165 to about 230 which should be enough.
Shubhankar Sharma, who missed the cut in the first event, faces the danger of doing so yet again as he shot four-over 75 and was way down in 123rd place. He will need to finish at least in Top-3 to have a chance of earning a card.
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Starting on the tenth, Lahiri birdied his first hole to get off to a good start. Adding birdies on Par-4 15th and Par-5 16th he reached three-under before the turn.
A bogey on first, his 10th hole, was neutralised by a birdie on Par-5 second. He did not birdie the Par-5 third, but did manage one on Par-4 sixth to reach four-under. But a bogey on closing ninth pulled him back to three-under.
Once again he hit the ball fine and found 64 % fairways and did better while finding greens in regulation with 72%.
Sharma had an up-and-down first nine with three birdies against four bogeys. On the second nine, also the front stretch, he birdied third to get to even. But he then ran into a disastrous stretch with four bogeys in a row and finished 75.
Last week in the first of the three finals, leader Murray was T-23 though with a medical exemption because of a lower back injury. He will have 12 starts on the PGA Tour next season. Saxon missed the cut and he is trying to gain a PGA Tour card for the first time.
Four players -- Hank Lebioda, Tom Hoge, Tyler Duncan and Mark Anderson -- are tied for third after rounds of 6-under 65.
Of them only Anderson, who was 14th in the Korn Ferry season, is assured of a card for the first time since 2016-17.
The Albertsons Boise Open is the second of three events in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. The 2019 season concludes next week at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, where The Finals 25 will earn their PGA TOUR cards for the 2019-20 season.