Anirban Lahiri hopes performance at The Players will lead to more success

By IANS

MUMBAI: Though nearly two days have passed since he scripted the biggest success of his career at The Players, the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament, Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri said the feeling has begun to sink in and he is hoping to build on his second career runner-up finish on the Tour to reap more achievements in future.

“It’s definitely beginning to sink in a little bit. I keep thinking about what could have been. Obviously, it’s a great result, great finish, but I dearly wanted to win,” Lahiri told the Indian media on Wednesday evening in a virtual interaction organised by the PGA Tour.

“And I do look back and think of what could have been, but I’m very happy with how I played, and lots of positives to take forward. It’s been great talking to family and friends back home. It’s been great to see the response. It’s been amazing how many people stayed up and watched into the early hours of the morning,” he said.

“Yeah, it’s great, it’s great. Makes me feel fantastic. It’s not just about appreciation; I see the difference, I hear the difference in the voice of some of the people I speak with and that’s very special,” the 34-year-old Lahiri said.

Asked how the turnaround came about, as he had struggled in the previous editions of the event and also in his recent outings on the PGA Tour, Lahiri, who had finished runner-up in the 2017 Memorial Tournament.”I think the turnaround pretty much came from somewhat finding the missing link. I’ve been hard at work with pretty much all departments of my game, including the mental, including my processes and those things have started to fall into place over the last few weeks. I just had my iron play that was really troubling me and kind of damaging me, and definitely, there was a big uptick,” said Lahiri.

“Having said that, over the last day, day and a half, I’ve thought back on all the iron shots on the back nine that I didn’t hit well from the fairway, whether it was 18, whether it was 15, whether it was 13, whether it was 14. So obviously there’s a lot of work still to be done because, you know, if I’m in that position again on the back nine this time Sunday, I’d like to hit those same shots within 15 and 20 feet to give myself opportunities which I failed to give myself this Monday,” Lahiri said.

The second-place finish in The Players meant Lahiri moved up to 45th on the FedExCup standings and 89th on the World Rankings and now is planning to complete his schedule for the year, hoping for some more good performances.

“So schedule-wise, right now I’m just looking at getting back to 100 percent physically and resting. It was a five-week stretch and really that last week at Sawgrass felt like a month, so my body’s a little bit beat up right now. So I’m going to focus on recovering and getting, you know, 100 percent ready to go again,” he added.

“As of now for my schedule, my next tournament will be the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio. That’s the week before Augusta, so I suppose that will be my last opportunity to make it to the Masters.

“Following Texas Open, I will probably play RBC Heritage, which is the week after Augusta. Then I’ll play the Mexico Championship, the Wells Fargo Championship, and after that, I’ll be on standby because Ipsa (his wife) will have reached term and we’ll be expecting our second anytime. After that, it will be playing it by ear,” said Lahiri.