Late, late entrant Anirban Lahiri is a relieved man on KL arrival

By Rahul Banerji

It was a late, mad scramble that got Anirban Lahiri to Kuala Lumpur in time for the CIMB Classic that tees off in a few hours from now.

Booked on two flights, it needed a last-minute call to confirm that he was actually playing the event, and to catch the one headed for Malaysia instead of the USA.

Lahiri will tee off with Chez Reavie and Kelly Kraft for the first two days.

Of the three other Indians in the field, Shubhankar Sharma is alongside Byeonghun An and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Rahil Ganjee is clubbed with Whee Kim and Nick Watney while Gaganjeet Bhullar has been teamed with Jason Kokrak and Jon Curran.

Excerpts from his pre-tournament interview:

On his last-minute arrival in KL

I’m quite relieved actually.  I made my plans in the off season assuming that I would play the CIMB, so I kind of expected myself to be playing so it came as a bit of a surprise.

It was funny actually. I played a round with Brendan Grace back in Florida the weekend before Napa, so like 10 days ago. Brendan’s the one who told me like I’m fourth reserve and I said what are you talking about?

I hadn’t even looked because it’s always gone down past 100, comfortably past 100.  He was like, no, no.

He said, I was looking for myself and I’m alternate for Korea and I was looking at the CIMB list and I saw you’re not in.

That’s when I checked. I said oh, shit, but it’s already too late because they usually go about four weeks before the event.

So  Monday last week I was still fourth alternate. Wednesday afternoon Ollie Schniederjans was one ahead of me, got in. 

I was first alternate from Wednesday afternoon onwards and it did not move. I was waking up every morning expecting – you know, didn’t move. Come Sunday  I missed the cut.

Then there was more confusion because I tried to call the tournament director to find out if I could travel here as a first alternate because obviously this week the tournament takes care of the players coming and staying. So he says yeah, yeah, you can come, but if you don’t get in, it’s on you going back.

I said okay, I’ll wait until I get in. My original flight was Sunday night, Sunday midnight. 

All the players flew on Cathay actually because it’s a Malaysian Airlines-OneWorld thing. I had a 12:30 a.m. just past midnight flight booked and I actually booked the 11:30 p.m. redeye to Florida from San Francisco because I said if I don’t get in I’m just going to go back to Florida.

So I’m sitting at the airport. This is what happened. I’m sitting at the airport and check‑in Counter 8 is Cathay Air, Counter 10 is Jet Blue.

I was just sitting there between the two counters. I sent an email saying I’m going to walk in and check in to my Jet Blue flight at 10 p.m., so if something changes, tell me, I’ll cancel that.

About 20 minutes later I got a call that Andrew Landry had withdrawn. So I had to leave like ‑‑ I was at the airport, I go this way or I go that way, I had two flights within an hour of each other. It was not fun.

On playing the CIMB again

I worked very hard. I had two, three weeks off. I went to Napa. I was still in practice mode, a little rusty even though there was a short break.

Then on Friday afternoon I actually started playing a little better on the back nine and I felt more comfortable. 

I felt okay, now I’m beginning to get the rust off, I’m ready, I’m going to play the weekend this week. It doesn’t matter, but I’m going to familiar territory,

I play well there, I know what to do, I know the golf course, the weather, how far the ball’s going to go, pin positions, great.

Yeah, it was important for me to come here and play. It’s important to get off to a good start and I haven’t done that last week. 

The last three years I’ve usually played well in the fall. It’s important for me to get off – get out of the blocks a little and this week’s a good week for me to do that.

 On the course

I just got some practice in now. I was talking to some of the guys and they said that it’s pretty much the same except for the grass.  The ball’s running out a little bit, but it’s okay, I’ll figure it out.

It’s going to be a difficult one this week.  This is the first I’m coming here as a vegetarian, so I was thinking to myself I’m going to have to order the stir fry garlic bok choy instead of my favorite dim sums.

 On returning to the Asian Tour

Yesterday I got here and I went straight to Rahil’s (Gangjee) room and we were sitting and chatting for like two, three hours just catching up and that’s fun. 

I miss that obviously. That’s what it’s like coming here. Even now I’m just walking around, I know so many familiar faces, just catching up and saying hello.

It’s become like a yearly affair where I kind of catch up with everyone.

On the 2019 Presidents Cup and Ernie Els

I think Ernie is obviously himself with the best credentials. As a match play player, he is probably the greatest among the internationals of all time without a doubt.

And also he was the vice captain last year at Liberty. So I’ve known Ernie a long time now and we’re neighbours in Florida as well. I know how badly he wants us to win the cup back.

On the Els effect

Of course. It rubs off on all of us. He was there when obviously the historic Presidents Cup in South Africa where him and Tiger played into the darkness, but he was also there at Royal Melbourne the last time we won 20 years ago. 

So it’s obviously special. Any Presidents Cup is special, but this time we’re going to be playing on home ground, on home turf rather, and I think it’s going to be different than Korea in terms of the support.

So to be playing in front of the Aussie crowds at Royal Melbourne under Ernie playing against Tiger’s team, you can’t have a better setting to actually win the cup back.

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