By Rahul Banerji
India’s top professional golfer Anirban Lahiri will make a seventh appearance at the PGA Championship, the year’s second major, having returned to the top 100 in the world rankings recently.
Even as Lahiri and the Crushers were on their way to third place at last week’s LIV Golf Singapore came the news that he was on the PGA of America’s shortlist. The amateur body runs the event that will be played at Rochester, New York, from May 18 to 21.
It was a call-up the India star, who will also turn out at the Asian Games later this year in China, was waiting for.
With LIV Golf offering no official ranking points, it needed a second-place finish at the Asian Tour’s International Series Vietnam event three weeks ago to regain lost ground.
That display took him from outside the top 100 to 95th place, virtually guaranteeing his entry to the PGA Championship, where he has a tied fifth finish, the best by an Indian golfer at a major back in 2015.
Creditable run
The 35-year-old has a string of credits at the majors besides being the best-finishing Indian. In all, he has made 17 appearances so far making the cut at the Masters in 2015 and 2016, at the Open thrice (2012, 2015, 2016) and twice at the PGA Championship,
Lahiri has not made the weekend rounds at the US Open in three starts (2015, 2016 and 2019).
Since signing up with LIV Golf last year, Lahiri has two second-place finishes including one at his very first event in Boston, and won the team event as part of the Crushers at the season-opener in Mayakoba, Mexico, earlier this year.
As if to celebrate the invite, Lahiri returned a bogey-free 67 at Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club, a first for him, to help the Bryson DeChambeau-led team to third place in the LIV event.
“I am glad how I played. To go bogey-free at the Serapong course is very special. I have been trying to do that for more than 10 years,” Lahiri said in the Hindustan Times.
“Regarding the PGA Championship, I am delighted they decided to give me a spot. This validates my very tough decision to go to the International Series Vietnam when all that was going on back home.”
Just ahead of the Asian Tour tournament at Cam Ranh, Lahiri flew home to be with his ailing mother-in-law, who subsequently lost her battle with cancer last week.
He plans to spend the two weeks ahead of the PGA Championship in India.
Also read: Ranking points, Cam Ranh result a boost for Anirban Lahiri
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