Anirban lahiri scaled a new high for Indian golf by becoming the first from the country to finish inside the top-five of a Major, signing off a brilliant tied fifth in the prestigious PGA Championships.
lahiri played a superb final round of 68, after first three rounds of 70-67-70, for a total of 13-under 275. In fact, at one stage, he rose to as high as tied third during the day.
The 28-year-old, who hit the global golf headlines with stunning wins in the Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open in a span of three weeks, climbed to No. 38 in the new rankings from No. 53.
However, his career-best is No. 33 which he attained at the end of March this year.
“This gives me a massive amount of confidence, knowing that I can be out here mixing it up with the best, knowing that I need to get just a little bit better to maybe get closer or over the line in the future. So it’s been a huge week for me,” lahiri said.
lahiri also moved back into Top-10 on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai Rankings and is now placed at No. 8. The top-60 will qualify for the season-ending Race to Dubai event.
lahiri, who was ninth and on the borderline of automatic selections (Top-10), is also expected to move up to seventh on President’s Cup rankings and seal his place on the International team, which will be announced on September 8.
The top-10 in standings are automatic selections with two more players being picked by the Captain. The President’s Cup is an event held every two years between United States and Rest of the World (minus Europe).
Talking of the finish and being somewhere close to top, lahiri said, “It feels great. It’s a bit of a relief, really. I’ve never really gotten into contention. I won’t really say I was in contention here, because I was a long ways out. But I was in the mix. It’s a great feeling.”
The tied fifth end saw lahiri improve on the tied ninth finish in the PGA Championships in 2008 by Jeev Milkha Singh.
lahiri, who played all four Majors and made cuts in three was tied 49th at Masters and tied 30th at The Open.
lahiri had six birdies and two bogeys in his round of 68. The Indian summed up the week, saying, “It’s been a fantastic week. It started off with the long drive on Tuesday and, yeah, it’s been fantastic.
“I’ve loved the golf course right from the first day and first look. But obviously a little disappointed with that finish. I think a couple of shots better would have got my card on the PGA TOUR. So a little disappointed about that,” he said.
“I think that I was playing — I was really in a good zone. I was playing well, I was hitting it good. Then I think the 3-putt on 10 from five or six feet, I think that was like a kick in the stomach for me. It just knocked the wind out of me.
lahiri said he hardly kept an eye on the leaderboard while going through his round.
“I did really well to gather myself from a difficult position, I made birdie on 11. Kind of steadied the boat a little bit. But again, kind of disappointed to finish in the end. But I wasn’t really looking at the leaderboard much because it was so bunched up, guys were going back and forth, so there was no point.”
lahiri started with a birdie and then never took his foot off the pedal. He had gained momentum and he kept going. He added a second birdie, after having an eagle chance from 25 feet.
A third birdie followed on sixth, where he drove the green and came to 23 feet for an eagle, but got only an eagle. A 17-footer on ninth saw him turn in four-under, one of the best among the leading players.
He started the back nine with his first bogey of the day and that was a key moment in the round. Till then, lahiri was going great and on 10th, he three-putted from around five feet.
He quickly got a birdie on 12th and added another on Par-5 16. But once again he closed with a bogey on 18th, where he dropped a total of four shots in the week. The 18th took a double bogey from lahiri on first day, a bogey on third and another on the final day.