By Rahul Banerji
Anirban Lahiri, India’s sole full-time member of the PGA Tour, has decided to throw his lot in with LIV Golf beginning later this week.
While there is no confirmation from the Saudi-backed LIV organisation yet, Lahiri told Dubai-based golf writer Joy Chakravarty his mind was made up.
“It’s a new chapter in my life and one that I am really looking forward to,” Lahiri was quoted as saying in The Hindustan Times a short while ago.
Reports have been circulating for the past week about Lahiri’s move to the Greg Norman-fronted LIV Golf Series along with at least five others including world no. 2 Cameron Smith of Australia.
Others joining the latest exodus from the PGA Tour up include Australia’s Marc Leishman, Chilean Joaquin Niemann and Americans Harold Varner and Cameron Tringale.
“I have found the whole concept of LIV interesting and alluring,” the 35-year-old told Chakravarty.
“They have so many new things to offer, which is nice at a time when golf tournaments needed a bit of a shake-up.”
New team
Lahiri, who has won over $9 million in his seven years on the PGA Tour, will join Bryson DeChambeau’s team, Crushers GC, for the next LIV event later this week in Boston and thereafter.
In the 2023 season, he is slated to play the full LIV Golf schedule.
There were indications in the lead-up to the FedEx Cup finale that Lahiri, currently ranked 92nd in the world, was intrigued by the LIV concept.
“How all this plays out and where it will end up in a few years is anybody’s guess, but I think the whole concept of franchise golf just got started,” he said before the FedEx St Jude Championship.
“I mean, we in India are aware of it. It will be interesting to see where it goes.
“I think you can describe LIV Golf quite a bit like the IPL of golf, so to speak. It’s glamorous, it’s a different format, it’s a lot of money.
“It’s a lot of things that professional golf hasn’t been and those things have their own place.
Difficult call
“But when you talk about competitive golf and the level of golf, obviously the PGA Tour is the hardest place to play golf, therefore it’s always been the best place to play golf.
“…I have friends playing on the LIV, friends who were playing here before that and I’m happy for them and they are happy with their decision.”
Lahiri will be the second Indian in the LIV Golf ranks after Viraj Madappa who qualified for the first of the Invitational Series in England via the Asian Tour’s International Series.
LIV Golf and the Asian Tour announced a set of co-sanctioned events earlier this year called the International Series which also provides a pathway into the ongoing Invitational Series.
Cameron Smith, this year’s Open Championship winner, will become the highest-ranked player to leave the PGA Tour and join LIV Golf as the Saudi-funded series seeks to widen its global reach.
Prime targets
With Australia’s Norman being a driving force behind the breakaway league, Smith and Leishman were prime attractions.
A good number of Asians are already in the mix and Lahiri’s induction will go a long way in raising LIV Golf’s profile in the continent – a prime market – still further.
The big prize of course is Japan’s superstar Hideki Matsuyama, whose name has repeatedly cropped in LIV Golf conversations and reports, but as of yet, he has maintained a studious silence.
The latest round of departures will also affect the upcoming PGA Tour-backed President’s Cup which pits Team USA against an Internationals side, led this year by Trevor Immelman.
With this latest round of departures, the Internationals have lost out on two automatic selections in Smity and Neimann, and a couple of potential captains picks between Leishman and Lahiri.
So far, the PGA Tour has suspended all its members who have physically teed off in LIV Golf events.
Also read: To battle LIV Golf threat, PGA Tour goes the LIV Golf way
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