Reuters
Wisconsin, August 17: Anirban Lahiri notched up India’s best-ever result at a Major championship by finishing tied fifth at the PGA Championship here Sunday leaving him in no doubt he belonged at golf’s top table with the game’s current crop of rising stars.
The 28-year-old closed with an assured final round of four-under-par 68 and a 13-under total on the notoriously tricky Whistling Straits course, seven shots back of winner Jason Day of Australia who held off double Major winner Jordan Spieth.
“It’s been a fantastic week,” Lahiri told reporters after eclipsing the previous Indian Major record of a tied ninth finish by Jeev Milkha Singh at the 2008 PGA Championship.
“I won’t really say I was in contention here because I was a long way out but I was in the mix. It’s a great feeling, it’s massive for me. It gives me so much confidence. It also tells me that I can compete with the best on the toughest courses and the best fields. I just need to get a little better,” the Bangalore golfer added.
Lahiri has enjoyed a whirlwind 18 months. He has won four times on the Asian Tour, with two of those triumphs coming crucially in tournaments co-sanctioned by the European Tour that carried more weight. His world ranking has surged from 195th to 38th with a spot on the Internationals team for the President’s Cup in October all but assured.
The biennial team event in South Korea would see Lahiri mix it again with Day and new World No. 1 Spieth and the Indian said his PGA display, where he out-performed second-ranked Rory McIlory, showed he had no reason to feel inferior.
“I didn’t really feel out of place. I think that’s a massive positive for me,” he said of his Sunday display where he played alongside World No. 15 Matt Kuchar.
“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,” Lahiri added.
Lahiri, though, was already eyeing improvements. “I think, I need to be more consistent at crucial junctures. That is one aspect of the game, I am looking to work on,” said the Indian. “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,” he said.
