On-fire Lahiri takes four-shot lead into final round at Valderrama

Anirban Lahiri of Crushers GC hits his shot from the ninth tee during the second round of LIV Golf Andalucía at Real Club Valderrama. Image courtesy LIV Golf/Jon Ferrey.

From a Correspondent

Sotogrande, Spain: On a challenging golf course that grudgingly gives up low scores, Anirban Lahiri hopes his four-shot lead entering Sunday’s final round of LIV Golf Andalucía will serve him well as he seeks to end his nine-year victory drought.

But he knows no lead is truly safe at Real Club Valderrama.  

“It doesn’t really matter on this golf course,” the Crushers GC veteran said. “Every day you have to battle it out … (but) it is a difficult golf course to catch up.” 

Lahiri put himself in position for his first LIV Golf victory with a 5 under par 66 in Saturday’s second round that included six birdies and no bogeys in his last 13 holes.

That leaves the 37-year-old from India at 7 under, with Iron Heads GC’s Danny Lee his closest pursuer on 3 under. 

Thanks to Lahiri, captain Bryson DeChambeau’s 67 and Paul Casey’s 69, the league-leading Crushers shot a counting score of 11 under to move atop the team leaderboard at 7 under.

They also have a four-shot advantage over the home favourites, Fireballs GC. and are seeking a third team trophy this year. 

While Lahiri has experienced plenty of team success with the Crushers, the last of his 18 individual pro wins came in February 2015 at the Indian Open.

Near misses

Since joining LIV Golf in 2022, he’s had a few close calls, including his debut start in Boston when he was part of a three-man playoff won by Dustin Johnson. Last year, he had three podium finishes, including a runner-up to DeChambeau in Chicago. 

“The win would mean a lot,” said Lahiri, whose family arrived in town and will be cheering him on Sunday. “I’ve been chasing it for a while.” 

Like Dean Burmester’s 66 in the first round, Lahiri’s 66 was fuelled by a hot putter, as he led the field in putting average.

Never was the putter more helpful than on consecutive holes when he overcame poor chips shots by holing lengthy putts for a birdie at the 11th and par at the 12th.

“It bailed me out big time today,” Lahiri said of his putter.

“Didn’t help to chip like a 15 handicap. Valderrama makes you look like that. It’s so hard to chip out here, whether you’re on the fairways or the roughs. It takes a lot of skill. In fact, I need to go and hit some chips now.”

Low honours

While Valderrama was not as difficult in the second round as the day before – Saturday’s field stroke average of 71.963 was nearly 2-1/2 strokes lower than the first round – only about a third of the field managed to break par, with Lahiri and Ripper GC’s Marc Leishman sharing low round honours. 

First-round leader Burmester shot a 4 over 75 but only dropped into a tie for sixth. Lee maintained solo second with a 1 over 72 that included four birdies and five bogeys. 

“I can’t complain,” Lee said. “It was a good grind today. It’s playing really tough. You never know what’s going to happen.” 

Of the four Spanish players in the field, Fireballs GC’s Eugenio Chacarra is the closest to the lead at 2 under, tied for third with Cleeks GC captain Martin Kaymer and Legion XIII’s Tyrrell Hatton, the winner in Nashville at LIV Golf’s previous event.  

Chacarra opened with a double bogey on the first hole and was frustrated with a ruling on the fourth hole. But his approach shot at the fifth hole set up an easy birdie as he battled back to shoot 72. 

Hanging tough

“I didn’t have my best out there,” said the 24-year-old from Madrid. “But I think I hung in there.”

Fourteen players are within seven shots of the lead, including US Open champion DeChambeau and 2024 two-time senior major winner Richard Bland, who are tied for sixth.

DeChambeau is also keen to see his team win a third title this season and extend their current points lead.

He’s also chasing teammate Lahiri for the individual title. Last year at Valderrama, he finished second to Talor Gooch, who made a birdie on the final hole to win.

“Look, I’m going to try my best to accomplish a win out here,” said DeChambeau. “I was close last year and want to get that job done, but if Baan does, it will be the coolest thing and we’ll celebrate appropriately for him.”

A year ago, DeChambeau shot 63 in the second round at Valderrama to put himself in contention. Conditions are tougher this year, but his 4 under 67 on Saturday effectively did the same thing.

Rare feat

It was a round that included a slam-dunk hole-out from 98 yards for eagle at the par-4 14th, along with water balls at the par-5 17th and fourth holes that he still parred.

“Golf is golf,” said DeChambeau, who had never had a slam-dunk hole-out until Saturday. “You’re going to have weird stuff happen to you.”

Spanish stars Sergio Garcia, the Fireballs captain, and Jon Rahm, the Legion XIII captain, are in a group at even par that also includes Torque GC captain Joaquin Niemann, the current points leader. 

“I don’t think you ever should be comfortable on this golf course with any lead, to be honest,” said Rahm.

“It’s that difficult and it’s that precise, and when you’re chasing, you almost have the freedom to be aggressive because you have nothing to lose.” 

Lahiri is hoping that his prior close calls will pay dividends in holding off his chasers on Sunday. 

“All these experiences help,” he said. “It helped me today, as well, because even when I was ahead, I wasn’t really thinking about it.

“Just this golf course is perfect, actually, because you have no time to get ahead of yourself. Every shot is life-and-death almost.” (courtesy LIV Golf)

Team counting scores

1. Crushers GC -7 (Lahiri 66, DeChambeau 67, Casey 69; Rd. 2 score: -11)

2. Fireballs GC -3 (Puig 68, Ancer 72, Chacarra 72; Rd. 2 score: -1)

3. Stinger GC -2 (Oosthuizen 71, Schwartzel 72, Grace 72; Rd. 2 score: +2)

4. Majesticks GC +2 (Stenson 67, Westwood 70, Horsfield 74; Rd. 2 score: -2)

5. Cleeks GC +3 (Kaymer 68, Bland 70, Samooja 72; Rd. 2 score: -3)

T6. Ripper GC +5 (Leishman 66, Smith 71, Jones 71; Rd. 2 score: -5)

T6. Legion XIII +5 (Hatton 68, Rahm 69, Surratt 72. Rd. 2 score: -4)

T6. Iron Heads GC +5 (Lee 72, Vincent 73, Na 74; Rd. 2 score: +6)

9. 4Aces GC +8 (Perez 70, Reed 71, Johnson 72; Rd. 2 score: E)

T10. HyFlyers GC +9 (Steele 69, Ogletree 70, Tringale 70; Rd. 2 score: -4)

T10. Torque GC +9 (Niemann 68, Ortiz 74, Muñoz 74; Rd. 2 score: +3)

12. Smash GC +16 (Koepka 68, Kokrak 71, McDowell 77; Rd. 2 score: +3)

13. RangeGoats GC +26 (Wolff 70, Watson 75, Uihlein 76; Rd. 2 score: +8)

Round 2 stats 

Driving accuracy: Louis Oosthuizen, 78.57% (11 of 14 fairways hit)
Driving distance: Peter Uihlein, 352.0 yards avg.
Longest drive: Peter Uihlein, 384.8 yards, 17th hole
Greens in regulation: Henrik Stenson, 83.33% (15 of 18 greens)
Scrambling: Anirban Lahiri (7 of 8), 87.50%
Putting: Anirban Lahiri, 1.28 putts per hole
Bogey-free rounds: none 

Also read: Burmester leads at LIV Golf Andalucia, Lahiri is T4 with Garcia