By Rahul Banerji
Anirban Lahiri’s heroic final round at the Asian Tour’s International Series Vietnam would have been a serious morale boost going into LIV Golf Adelaide.
The 35-year-old Indian star overcame a difficult prelude to the $2 million Cam Ranh event where his charge on Sunday almost set up an unlikely victory with a closing bogey-free eight-under 64.
Having pulled out of LIV Golf Orlando to attend to his ailing mother-in-law, Lahiri picked up valuable world ranking points in Vietnam and is now focussed on making the most of successive LIV events in Adelaide and Singapore in end April.
“Excited to take this form into the next few weeks.,” the 2015 Asian Tour Order of Merit winner said. “I think it is going to be an important stretch over the next month, month and a half.
“You know, you get into the meat of the season. And very exciting to go to Australia. I’ve been to Adelaide and I’m hearing great things about the venue, about the people and the anticipation, the buzz is great.
High expectations
“I’m expecting it to be one of the best events of the year actually, for LIV. So yeah, you know, we’ll be off tomorrow and the show goes on.”
With the City of Churches and Don Bradman gearing up for the Liv Golf’s first visit Down Under, the mood in Adelaide – and the par-72 6,946-yard Grange Golf Club – too is upbeat.
“I think people are going to be really excited and they’re all gonna have a really good time,” LIV’s Aussie spearhead Cameron Smith said on the tour’s website. “I think what LIV Golf brings is a good time for fans, which means a good time for us.
“Especially in Adelaide, so it’ll be good fun,” added the Brisbane-born 29-year-old.
“Obviously we’re going there to win. It’ll be awesome if we could be up there at the end of the week and really give it a show.
“I don’t think it’s gonna be too much different on the golf course. I think the external stuff might just be a little bit hectic, but we’ll take that on the chin and run with it.”
Lahiri’s team, the Crushers, opened the 2024 LIV season in style with individual victory for Charles Howell III and second place in the team event, and they will want to improve on that.
Howell leads the overall individual standings but team captain Bryson DeChambeau has been off-colour in the new season, down in 33rd place. Paul Casey who also had a good run in Vietnam is 14th overall while Lahiri is down in 44th place.
Crowd-pullers
Much of the attention will be on Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka, with 4 Aces star Patrick Reed also in focus. The first two finished T2 at the Masters two weeks ago while Reed was fourth after taking third place at the LIV Orlando event behind Koepka.
It will be Smith’s Ripper GC – also numbering Marc Leishman, two-time Australian Open winner Matt Jones and Jediah Morgan – who will however be the focus of a sell-out crowd of 75,000.
Even Pro-Am day, not usually ticketed, has old out with 10,000 punters lining up to watch the fun and games at the Greg Norman-fronted event’s curtain-raiser.
For his part, Lahiri, whose last professional win came with the 2015 Indian Open, will be keen to break the jinx. “Great week, but it’s disappointing. I’ve had so many seconds now I need to break this habit of mine,” he pointed out in Vietnam.
After his run on Sunday, the big W may be just around the corner, even though the number of serious contenders at Adelaide is a long one.
Also read: Lahiri warms up for LIV Golf Adelaide in style at Vietnam Intl
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