Anirban Lahiri. Pic: File
July 7: Anirban Lahiri feels his game is coming together even as he prepares for his Olympic appearance later this month. Even as he gets ready for the John Deere Classic this week, Lahiri has twin goals in his sights – he wants a medal at the Olympics and a full card for the PGA Tour for 2022.
“I think the biggest difference, about the Olympic is you don’t get anything for coming fourth. Anything other than a podium finish is not significant at the Olympics, though a T-4 at a PGA Tour event goes a long way in ensuring a lot of things on the PGA Tour,” said Lahiri, who is combing his golfing goals while working for a charity, Askhaya Patra.
On the Olympics, he added, “It’s more of all or nothing because that’s really what you are there for. Unlike in many other sports (outside of Olympics), in golf you can have a top 10, which is considered a good result, or you can have a top 25, which is called a decent result, but at the Olympics a top 25 means nothing and a top 10 could be equally insignificant.”
Lahiri’s own struggles with Covid over the last two months was “scary”. On how his game has been on return from Covid, Lahiri, said, “My game is feeling quite good. This is probably the best I’ve felt since my bout with COVID. I think I had a lot of positives in the one week, and then last week also I played some good golf.”
Though his PGA Tour card was not locked yet, Lahiri said that he could not even thinking of bypassing a chance to play for India at the Olympics. He said, “I know what an Olympic medal can do for Indian golf. I would not be able to forgive myself if I passed up a chance to try and get one (medal).”
This week Lahiri will not have to look far for inspiration as he is paired with Cam Davis, winner of Rocket Mortgage last week, and Sungjae Im, who in 2020 finished runner-up at Masters and has one win on the Tour, too. Lahiri, who has not won worldwide since the 2015 Hero Indian Open, added, “This week I’ve tried to work on some of those areas that needed a little bit of polishing, and I’m excited. I like the golf course. Weather is going to be nice and warm, which is something that I usually like.”
Sharing his covid story and how he got it, Lahiri said, “It just so happened when my coach (Vijay DIvecha) came in from India. He tried to avoid exposing himself at the airport and he went to a friend’s house in Delhi when he was transiting (in early April). When he landed here and started work, the day after he landed, the friend he stayed with called us and said that he was not feeling well.
“Vijay unfortunately contracted the virus even though he was fully vaccinated, I kind of got it from him and so did my family, my wife. I think my daughter had it, too, though we didn’t test her because she’s only two.”
“I had a pretty serious bout with it. I had prolonged fever,” he added. He was even suspected of having COVID pneumonia. The chest X-rays were not very positive and he was put on stronger and slightly different medication. When he had to go back to the hospital for a checkup, the fever was up to 104 on the ninth day and oxygenation had come down.
However, subsequent tests and chest Xrays ruled out Covid pneumonia, which was a relief for Lahiri as it could have impacted him seriously.
It took him two months to get to back his feet and lost all his muscle and almost 15 pounds. His wife, Ipsa, despite having Covid, drove him to hospital and took care of the family.
On his charity work, Lahiri said, “Akshaya Patra is an organization that is doing great on-the-groundwork. One of the reasons I like it is because they’re doing a lot of work specifically for the migrant laborers, for kids whose parents are not around.”
As for his schedule, Lahiri will play this week at John Deere and then Barbasol next week. Then it will be Olympics – “I will be in Japan for around seven and a half day – and back to US. He may play the Barracuda Championships and then the final event of the regular season at Wyndham. “By then I hope I have done enough to get the card,” Lahiri added with a laugh. He is 119th and needs to stay inside Top-125 to keep his full status.
