Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA, 17-08-2015
Anirban Lahiri makes 'Major' statement with top-5 at PGA Championship
Records best Major finish by an Indian, moves up to 38 in world rankings
Anirban Lahiri’s final round of four-under-68 at the PGA Championship 2015 capped a memorable day for Indian golf. The 28-year-old rewrote the record books with his performance at Whistling Straits on Sunday as he claimed tied fifth place to register the best finish by an Indian at the Majors so far. The previous record was established by Jeev Milkha Singh when he secured tied ninth at the PGA Championship in 2008.
Lahiri (70-67-70-68) kept up the intensity through the week with his four sub-par rounds and signed off with a tournament total of 13-under-275 to finish seven strokes behind eventual champion Jason Day of Australia.
Anirban’s superb showing earned him a handsome prize purse of US$ 367,500 and catapulted him from 53 to 38 in the world rankings.
It’s been a meteoric rise for Anirban on the international stage since he won his first Asian Tour event on home soil back in 2011. He continued to enjoy success in Asian Tour events staged in India, adding two more titles to his kitty in the following two years. The year 2014 finally saw him triumph overseas with victories in Indonesia and Macau.
However, it is 2015 that has been the watershed season for the Bangalore lad so far. Playing his rookie season on the European Tour, Lahiri notched up two titles, the Malaysian Open and Indian Open, early in 2015, to rise up to his career-best world ranking of 33. On Sunday, he made a statement at the highest level of the sport, by finishing inside the top-5 at the year’s final Major.
Anirban’s breathtaking performance at his seventh Major has not only brought him the international limelight but also significantly raised the stature of Indian golf. Lahiri is now likely to make big gains in the European Tour Race to Dubai where he’s currently ranked ninth having already earned over 1 million Euros in his debut season. He will also seal his spot in the International Team for the Presidents Cup, another first for India.
Anirban is already in a commanding position in the Asian Tour Order of Merit with season’s earnings of US$ 925,484. He is likely to build an unassailable lead there by surpassing the US$ 1 million mark in the coming months. He will thus become only the third player to go past the US$ 1 million earnings barrier in a single season, a feat so far achieved by fellow Indian Jeev Milkha Singh and Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand.
Lahiri, who was overnight tied eighth and six off the lead at Whistling Straits, came out all guns blazing in round four with four birdies on the front-nine. He sank three birdies from a range of 17 to 23 feet and narrowly missed an eagle on the par-4 sixth where he drove the green. The 3-putt from 5 feet on the 10th which led to a bogey and came against the run of play was probably the only dampener in his round.
Anirban capitalized on both par-5s on the back-nine, the 11th and 16th, by picking up birdies. He had reached as high as tied third after the 16th. The Indian star also made some important par saves on the fourth, 12th and 17th to keep the momentum going. Finally, the bogey on the closing 18th where he missed an up and down, couldn’t stop him from finishing in the top-5.
Lahiri said, “This gives me a massive amount of confidence, knowing that I can be out here mixing it up with the best, knowing that I need to get just a little bit better to maybe get closer or over the line in the future. So it's been a huge week for me. It also tells me that I can compete with the best on the toughest courses and the best fields.”
Talking of the finish and being somewhere close to the top, Lahiri said, “It feels great. It's a bit of a relief, really. I've never really gotten into contention. I won't really say I was in contention here, because I was a long ways out. But I was in the mix. It's a great feeling.”
He summed up the week, saying, “It's been a fantastic week. It started off with the long drive on Tuesday and, yeah, it's been fantastic. I've loved the golf course right from the first day and first look. But obviously a little disappointed with that finish. I think a couple of shots better would have got me my card on the PGA Tour. So a little disappointed about that.
“I think I was really in a good zone. I was playing well, I was hitting it good. Then I think the 3-putt on 10 from five or six feet, was like a kick in the stomach for me. It just knocked the wind out of me.
“I did really well to gather myself from a difficult position, I made birdie on 11. Kind of steadied the boat a little bit. But again, kind of disappointed to finish in the end. But I wasn't really looking at the leaderboard much because it was so bunched up, guys were going back and forth, so there was no point.”
“I putted a lot better today. But it's obviously the scoring aspect that I feel is lacking a little bit. I think that's where I need to tighten it up, just around the greens and make a few more 10 and 12 footers. That should do the trick.”
“This is more a pressure reliever than anything else, pressure from myself because I know I’m good enough to compete out here. I can come out here and play more freely, not having to prove anything to myself,” said Lahiri, who has won four times in the past 18 months.
“I didn’t really feel out of place. I think that’s a massive positive for me. I felt really comfortable whoever I was playing with and whenever I was playing and whatever I was doing, I felt very much at home. I think that’s a good sign,” he said.
Lahiri thus improved upon his previous best of tied 30th at the Majors which he only achieved at last month’s British Open. This was his sixth Major in a row. Anirban’s performance this week will further raise his hopes of representing India at next year’s Olympics.
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