By Rahul Banerji
Two par-plus rounds in a row at the Dell Technologies Championship ended Anirban Lahiri’s 2017-18 season on the PGA Tour, the Indian standard-bearer missing the cut by a handy margin to leave his sizeable following a tad disappointed.
Having squeezed through to the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs after showing some good late season form, Lahiri was hoping for better returns at TPC Boston.
Instead, rounds of 74 and 73 on the par-71 course saw him slip to and 99th overall in the playoff standings. He had started at Boston 97th place.
Only the top 70 at the Dell Technologies Championship go through to the third leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the BMW Championship, which Lahiri had qualified for last year.
On Saturday, Lahiri had just one birdie against three bogeys and said his game had gone off the boil even though he had hit 14 greens in regulation.
“Quite a disappointing finish to the season. Frustrating to play my C game down the stretch past few weeks.
“Time to regroup reset and start again. Thanks to all your support through the year. #currypower will be back!” Lahiri tweeted afterwards.
Last year, Lahiri fell out of contention at the BMW Championship in Pennsylvania.
The Pune-born 31-year-old last year became the first Indian to make it to the post-season wrap-up. This time, the Palm Beach Gardens-based golfer started the playoffs in 91st place among 125 qualifiers.
He finished 99th overall and out of the running after the Boston performance.
Strong comeback
After a mid-season slump, Lahiri twice went close to a top-five finish – tied 9th at the Travellers Championship and T6 at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. In all, he had four top-10 finishes and made 17 cuts in 23 starts this season.
He had earlier wrapped up a tied fifth place at the CJ Cup @Nine Bridges at the start of the season.
Overall, the Hero MotoCorp-backed Lahiri racked up $1.44 million in earnings this year taking his career aggregate to $4.79 million.
Jaipur Open
The second edition of the Rs 30 lakh Jaipur Open tees off at the Rambagh Golf Club on Tuesday, jointly staged by the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), Rajasthan Tourism and the Rajasthan State Sports Council.
The events features some of the top professionals of the South Asian region including Jyoti Randhawa (a winner of nine international titles and former Asia no. 1), Shamim Khan (2017 PGTI Order of Merit champion), Asian Tour regular Chiragh Kumar, as well as Sri Lankans N Thangaraja and Mithun Perera (also winners on the PGTI this year).
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