Family a big reason for me to choose LIV Golf: Anirban Lahiri | Golf News – Times of India

BENGALURU: Ace Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri, who made a sensational debut on the LIV Golf Tour recently in Boston, said the Saudi-backed series was the best thing to have happened to him in a long time.
Lahiri, who lost in a three-way playoff, said lack of familial support and swimming against the current all by himself on the PGA Tour goaded him to join LIV Golf. The 35-year-old, who is planning to shift base to Dubai by the end of the year, spoke to TOI.
Excerpts…
You shot 15-under for the tournament, the best score of the season, you couldn’t have asked for a better debut.
It could have been better by a shot or two. But if anybody told me at the beginning of the week that that is how the week would pan out, not just myself playing well but leading my team all three days to a podium finish, it’s as good a start as I could have ever dreamed of.
Would you attribute it to playing with a lot more freedom since you’re playing without a cut?
No. The one thing I felt different was the environment, the energy. The atmosphere was welcoming. There were a lot of familiar faces, because of the Asian Tour‘s involvement with LIV. I saw a lot of people after six, seven years who had become my friends after playing nearly a decade on the Asian Tour. I felt at ease off the golf course as well. That translated on to the golf course. A lot of it actually has to do with my mindset.
Does the absence of a 36-hole cut, qualification, Tour card, have a positive psychological impact?
No, it’s difficult to compare LIV golf to regular golf. But once you start getting into the week, I would look at the board every now and not just to see how I was faring on the individual leaderboard but also to see if you are contributing to the team. I think the motivation and the mindset is different. You’re not thinking you can go for broke since there’s no cut. I got to make sure my score counts. My teammates are dependent on me.
With so many of the big stars still on the other side, does a depleted field undermine your performance? Or, would you rather see the positives of a healthy score?
My objectives are to be the best golfer I can be and help my team to the podium. So, if we had all the biggest stars in the game on LIV, then the stage becomes a little bit higher. But I don’t think the absence of some of the big stars takes away from what the tournament is and what it means. The same question can be raised on the other side that many of the top golfers are playing LIV, does this undermine their performance. I don’t see a scenario where all of the top golfers will be on one platform, at least for the near future.

Anirban Lahiri. (USA TODAY Sports)
What led you to LIV Golf, especially when you had so much going for you?
Over the last three, four years, I have struggled on the PGA Tour, both in terms of my performance and motivation levels. I have been on the verge of quitting the game at least twice. I was fed up with the grind, with not improving. My golf had started to plateau. The second aspect was my family. My daughter is now three-and-a-half, my son is going to be four months old.
Having kids and not having any familial support has been difficult. When I was not playing competitive golf, I was not able to unwind and relax. I was burning out. Last year, in November and December, when I went back to India with my wife and kids, we actually had made a decision that by 2023 we have to start looking to move back towards India. Then the first LIV event happened in London in June. Some of my friends transitioned. A lot of those very people were also planning to move their families out of the US. When I started talking to them, I said, we’ve always wanted to do this so why not pursue this and see what it leads to. The timing was correct. The financial aspect also cannot be ignored. It’s a crazy amount that we’re playing for week in, week out, as you saw in Boston. You get rewarded richly for playing your best golf.
Hasn’t the move robbed you off a chance to play on the PGA Tour, European Tour, the majors, Presidents Cup? Is this worth it at this stage of your career?
The main thing that I had to think about was the majors. I spoke with my team, Vijay (coach) sir and a number of people. I can still get into the majors, it might be a little bit harder. I might have to go for sectional qualifying or for regional qualifying for the Open, for the US Open. The Masters becomes the hardest major to qualify for because there’s no qualifying criteria. Now at 35, I’m looking to play another 5-10 years. So, for the next 7-8 years, I don’t mind making a good future for my family, my kids, and still pursue my dream of playing the majors. A lot of people ask me, you played so well last week, what was the difference? I felt very much at ease. I felt motivated, wanted, very fresh. So, it was the biggest question that I had to ask myself: can I make my peace with not playing the Memorial tournament, or Tiger’s event or Riviera, or Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Invitational? Those are hard to say no to. But you can’t expect to have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes you have to make a choice. And the choice for me was a better life for myself and for my family, which has been second and third priority to my aspirations for 15 years.
With you joining LIV now, what happens to your plans of moving?
We’re moving to Dubai by the end of the year. It allows me to be within a three-hour flight away from my parents, coach, in-laws and friends. It also allows me to fly direct to pretty much anywhere in the world.
Why do top stars like Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have such contempt for LIV?
One of the things that the outside world doesn’t understand is it’s a different format (individual and franchise). The idea behind LIV is to have a more entertaining, engaging product which doesn’t require as much time. The atmosphere is like an IPL match. LIV is trying to accomplish a different kind of product, a younger fan base. As far as exhibition golf goes, anybody who watched the action last week will probably eat their words because the quality of golf was anything but exhibition.
I can understand Tiger and Rory feeling the way they’re feeling. There are a lot of business interests that they are also involved in that aren’t public. And a lot of those business interests get compromised when there’s competition, or shall I say, when there is a competitor. And LIV has become a competitor. It doesn’t serve the better interests of certain individuals. At the same time, I’m not saying that one should be replacing the other or one should not coexist with the other. They have to co-exist.