I’m in a good space mentally says Lahiri ahead of big DGC week

Anirban Lahiri feels the break since the early end to his LIV Golf season has been useful in more ways than one. Image Rahul Banerji

I’m in a good space mentally says Lahiri ahead of big DGC week

By Rahul Banerji

Anirban Lahiri scripted his last professional title, the Hero Indian Open 11 years ago at the Delhi Golf Club. 

This week, the Indian ace is back for the second edition of the $4 million DP World India Championship at the DGC, and looking forward to ending a seven-week spell of little or no golf on a course he knows well and loves.

The time away from the game was divided between family and working on aspects of his game that needed attention after an indifferent 2026 season with Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC at LIV Golf.

“I wasn’t very happy with how I played the season,” Lahiri said at the DGC on Tuesday.

“It was probably my weakest season in the last few. I did have some time off so the last few weeks I’ve been working hard in Dubai. It’s been hot but exciting for me to work towards coming back out here and performing and playing well again.”

“I had a lot of time to reflect after my season. It ended a little abruptly and it was hectic because I was on the road for a long time just with the way things panned out. 

Necessary break

“So I wanted to put my clubs away for a while just to clear my head. I am now in my 20th year as a professional so a lot of wear and tear, a lot of abuse has happened to the body.

“Seven weeks is a long stretch. I don’t know the last time I had that long a break when it wasn’t the off season.

“I spent the first three and a half weeks pretty much not playing much golf, barely hitting any balls. A lot of time in the gym, a lot of time doing other modalities, recovery, fitness, strengthening, et cetera, et cetera.

“I had a lot of time with my kids at home. They’re four and seven. It’s a fantastic age. So it was wonderful for me to be a present dad and present husband with our lives. 

“The number of weeks we spend away from our family is a big challenge. I’ve enjoyed the other roles, the other hats I have to don.

“And I was very excited about four weeks in to get back to my work, get back to practice, and get back to being in competitive shape coming into this week.

I’m excited. I’m fresh. Mentally I’m in a really good space.”

On the course

Anirban Lahiri: It’s always nice to be back, back to the DGC, back in front of home crowds. The course is in great shape. I think the rough is up more than maybe even last year, which is good.

I think it’s going to play really good and I’m looking forward to the challenge again. 

“I think last year was me re-familiarising myself because that was the first time I came back after the renovation (in 2019) and the changes that were made.

The idea is to kind of prepare a little bit better because my old memories of DGC kind of to some extent maybe got in the way.

On his LIV Golf future

Anirban Lahiri: The situation is very dynamic. A lot of things going on. It’s hard for me to comment on it, also because, you know, it’s a matter of seeing how the processes work out.

As for me, I’m just focusing on playing this week. I’m here for the DP World Tour India Championship. I’m excited how I play this week. 

I think my focus and energies are going to be in the here and now and next week I’m playing in Hong Kong and then I do have the Philippine Open on my schedule, by which time I think we will know.

My only message to everyone who is going to have questions regarding this is you have been patient so far. 

Just give it another month, month and a half, and everyone will know exactly what’s happening one way or the other.

For me I’m going to do what I need to do. My time was well spent with my family focused on my own wellbeing, their wellbeing. 

I love playing golf. I believe I have a lot of gas left in the tank, a lot more that I want to achieve, and I’m going to continue to work my hardest to be the best golfer I can.

On what it needs to succeed at the DGC

Anirban Lahiri: I think a lot of it has been talked about before. The cliches for DGC always hold true: Hit fairways. A lot of people are not going to carry drivers. I haven’t carried one since 2011. 

So there is a lot of strategies that are tried and tested and have worked over the years. Keep the ball in play or keep it on the short stuff applies more here than most other golf courses. 

I think it plays its hardest when there is no rough. That’s my personal opinion. I played DGC in a variety of conditions: soft, firm, windy, wet, with no rough, a lot of rough.

The hardest challenge comes when you know that something slightly offline bounces into the bushes. That’s not going to happen this week. 

You’re going to end up in some very long, gnarly long rough. If you can keep it in the fairways you’re going to give yourself a lot of opportunity to make birdies.

The greens being as firm as they and the re-contouring of the greens, you’re not going to get a lot of tap-ins and 4-, 5-footers.

With the greens playing the way they are, you’re going to have to hit your irons really, really well. 

I think this week is all about iron play, because you’re also going to hit a lot of irons off the tee. Not necessarily 3- and 5-woods and hybrids. A lot of irons. 2-irons even.

So I think whoever hits his irons the best and has a good week on the greens, which you need, is going to have a great week.

On a likely winning number this week

Anirban Lahiri: It’s hard to say. And I’ll tell you why. Usually when you look at a golf course on a Monday you get one feeling, but by the time you get to Wednesday afternoon the golf course generally changes character a little bit. 

The additional complication or X factor is that we’re expecting rain overnight Wednesday or potentially Thursday even.

If it does rain it could change the characteristics. It could play a little bit softer. Having said that, yesterday I played my practice round after rain, and the golf was still extremely firm, at least the greens were.

So it’s hard to put a number on it. Again, the quality of field that we have, if anyone of the high quality players in the field has a good outing with the flat stick and the irons, you can expect high teens or pretty much like what Tommy (Fleetwood) did last year.

Nobody saw 20-under being breached but it was breached. That’s what high quality golf looks like, and that’s what is very possible this week as well. You get a bout of wind, rain, delays, conditions change, that can change.

But expect high quality golf.

On Pranavi Urs’ Asiad gold medal effort

Anirban Lahiri: I’m so proud of her. She’s played brilliant golf, no doubt. I think that’s obvious. But she was also on the previous team when we went to China. So I got to hang out with her and spend time with her.

It was good to see how she has really focused since then. She made it a goal. She made it a priority. She’s worked really hard towards it.

But a lot of us, not just golfers, athletes in general, we all aspire to be able to peak at the right time, but for her to be actually able to do it when it mattered the most, that’s the biggest accomplishment because I think everybody is trying to do exactly that.

And then sometimes when you find yourself in that position, it can be really daunting and challenging, and she got off to a bad start on Sunday and she bounced back from that.

So it’s just amazing to the see the overall growth and development that Pranavi’s shown. The medal is just a testament to her work.

I would also like to give a mention to the Aditi’s back nine. We got another silver medal. Of course riding on Pranavi’s good performance, but if Aditi didn’t do what she did we would not have got that silver. So credit is due to not just Pranavi but the whole team.

Also read: PGA champ Rai set for DP World India Championship debut