T7 finish at Columbus gives Lahiri early shot at PGA Tour card

By Rahul Banerji

A couple of inches stood between a chance of returning to full PGA Tour status and playing on in the Korn Perry Tour finals series for Anirban Lahiri at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Colombus, Ohio, on Sunday.

Lahiri needed a birdie to finish his round and move up from seventh place to fifth, which could have given him enough points to regain his Tour card but the ball curled away inches shy of the cup.

Shared seventh earned him 165 points, says senior golf writer Joy Chakravarty (@TheJoyofGolf) who estimates a top-35 finish at the next of three Korn Ferry Tour finals should be enough to get the Indian star back to the top level.

Four regulars on the 2018-19 season on the PGA Tour finished in a tie for seventh at 8-under 276 on Sunday; Curtis Luck of Australia, Tom Hoge of the United States, Justin Harding of South Africa and Lahiri.

Two to go

According to the Tour website, Korn Ferry Tour Points are doubled for the finals, with 1,000 points awarded to the winner of each event, which, after the NCHC in Ohio, travels to Boise, Idaho for the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco at Hillcrest CC from coming Thursday.

The finals conclude at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at the Victoria National GC in Newburgh, Indiana, with a Friday to Monday format (August 30 to September 2).

Lahiri at one point event was just one stroke shy of the outright lead on the final day but two late bogies dented his charge. One last chance came his way with a long birdie putt opportunity but it went just wide, leaving him five shots behind eventual winner Scottie Scheffler of the US.

Shubhankar Sharma is the other Indian in the fray and he has to put in the hard yards at the Boise Open and the Tour Championship after missing the cut at Colombus.

Prez Cup line-up is final

Meanwhile, the top eight qualifiers for the 2019 Presidents Cup International team are final and captain Ernie Els will lead a group that includes four players with a combined 17 previous appearances and four others who will be playing for the first time.

The Presidents Cup returns to Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Golf Club for the third time between December 9 and 15, the ATP Tour said.

Marc Leishman, Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama have a combined 17 appearances in the Presidents Cup and they will be joined by Abraham Ancer of Mexico, China’s Haotong Li, Cameron Smith of Australia and Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan.

Australia have the most players in the squad in the form of Leishman, Scott and Smith, while Li, Ancer and Pan are the first players from mainland China, Mexico and Chinese Taipei, respectively, to qualify for the Internationals.

Following the BMW Championship on Sunday, the cut-off date for team aspirants, Internationals captain Ernie Els said: “This is as good as I could have asked for.

“I’ve got guys who have played in the Presidents Cup many times previously and I’ve got guys who are rookies. The guys who are pillars of our team have really stepped up to take their places in this team. I’m really impressed with how they’ve conducted themselves and played into the team.

“For the top eight, I think the one-year qualifying cycle has worked well. The guys knew they had to play well this season and they showed it.”

Formidable unit

Team USA will be led by Tiger Woods, who finished a disappointing tied 37^th at the second FedEx Cup playoff event in Medinah and this will not defend his Tour Championship title at East Lake, in Atlanta.

Woods though will have a formidable squad at his disposal for the Presidents Cup as the eight US qualifiers were named as well on Sunday.

They include world no. 1 Brooks Koepka, no. 2 Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Webb Simpson besides Cup rookies Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.

Woods was quoted on the Presidents Cup website as saying on Sunday, “This is the core of the team.  These guys have earned it.  They’ve proven that they belong on the team.

 “You’ve got some veterans, whether it’s Webby, Kuch or Dustin, who have been part of the teams for a very long time, and we have some newcomers.  We have a nice mix.

“It’s a younger team, and that’s what we want to see.  We want to see a little turnover and get the younger guys playing on these teams because they’re going to be a part of it for a very long time going forward.

“Really, I can’t wait to get some of these young guys down to Royal Melbourne to experience golf in the Sandbelt Region and get to experience how much the fans love and appreciate sports and golf in that area of the world.”

Also read: Masterful Matsuyama races to halfway lead in BMW Championship