By Rahul Banerji
His golf may be on hold for now, but Anirban Lahiri is making the most of his time away from his profession, and its related grind and routines.
Currently in Bangalore with his parents, Lahiri is sanguine about the uncertainty around when professional golf will resume, preferring instead to concentrate on other – more important – things.
“I do miss playing golf but I don’t miss it that much,” he said recently. “It’s funny. As a sportsperson, we mentally prepare ourselves for what is to come,” he told PGA Tour Communications.
“If I’m leaving for four tournaments on the trot, I prepare to get into that space and ensure I don’t miss my family. I prepare mentally for it.
“With this break, I’m just keeping myself occupied with a little bit of cooking, yoga and some light weights training.
‘Stay-at-home dad’
“As we live in an enclosed housing society which is quite large, I can go for runs outside. And I pretty much enjoy being a stay-at-home dad. I’m trying to stay positive and look at things as best as possible.
“Everything is green right now in India which is one of the good things happening in our country and animals are coming out in areas which no one has seen anything like that in their lives.”
So how does he occupy time other than that spent with his daughter, Tisya.
“I’ve started yoga again … It’s nice to see my body responding to it. I’ve not been disciplined with yoga over the last few years as golf has basically taken up all my time.
“When you play well, you kind of create more time to do things to support it and when you are not playing well, you spend time working on your game, putting or being at the range,” he said.
Helpful stint
“I’m lucky I’m still flexible and I’ll be turning 33 in a few months’ time. If I devote the right amount of time and attention to it, I can see my body responding well and it helps with focus and balance.
“I’m pushing myself a bit more, which is a good challenge. It’s nice reconnecting with my body.”
By the time the current 2019-20 PGA Tour season ground to a halt in March, Lahiri had made five cuts from 12 starts, with a best finish of T44.
His last top-10 was posted at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in November, 2018 and Lahiri needed to regain his PGA Tour card through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals last season after finishing 178th on the FedExCup points list.
Time for a reset
The shutdown has clearly given him the time and opportunity to hit the reset button.
“I was already at a stage of reassessing my goals and processes even before this break. My golf has been poor to say the least and it was a matter of going back to the drawing board.
“Spending 10 days with my coach gave me a good sense on what I need to do to get to where I want to be,” he said.
He has also sought to bring some respite via a new video cooking series aptly titled “Cooking with the Lahiris” on his social media channels.
To date, Lahiri has uploaded two cooking lessons, which focuses on his favourite Indian dishes. His Twitter acount is @anirbangolf and @banstaa on Instagram.
Also read: Anirban Lahiri joins fellow golfers in stepping up for Covid relief efforts
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