Lahiri comes to home course at PGA National seeking to reverse fortunes
Palm Beach, Florida, US, Feb 23: Anirban Lahiri is looking to turn his fortunes at the Honda Classic’s tough PGA National Champion, a club he considers as his home course in the US, considering how close he lives to it.
So far it has been a disappointing start to the season, which started in Fall and almost a third of it is over. Lahiri needs to make a move quick to go up the FedExCup standings and get back to the Play-offs once again like last year. He has made only four cuts in 10 starts with a best finish of T-40 at WWT Mayakoba last November. He has missed the cut in his last two starts at the Phoenix Open and Genesis Invitational.
Lahiri will play his first two rounds of Honda Classic with two-time Major winner, Martin Kaymer, and Aaron Rai, an Indian origin player from England. They will tee off from the 10th early in the morning.
Lahiri, who was invited to join the Club by Jack Nicklaus himself, has one of the most difficult three hole stretches on the Tour with the 15th, 16th and 17th holes making up what it is called the Bear Trap.
The PGA National came on as a host in 2007 as a 7,241-yard layout and it now plays to 7,125 yards while remaining a par 70 the entire time. Water and wind are the key factors which come in the way of low scores.
The Florida Swing which begins with this week’s Honda Classic, will continue over the next four weeks: The Honda Classic will be followed by Arnold Palmer Invitational, THE PLAYERS Championship and Valspar Championship.
The field includes Joaquim Niemann, who won last week at Genesis, Brooks Koepka, who is a favourite, besides Tommy Fleetwood, who likes playing in the wind.
Some of the top stars in the field are Daniel Berger, Fleetwood, Sungjae Im, Gary Woodland, Rickie Fowler and Nicolai Hojgaard, the young 20-year-old Dane making his first non-Major PGA start.
Many of the players like Niemann hoping to secure their places in the International team for the President’s Cup include Sungjae Im (South Korea), Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa), Mackenzie Hughes (Canada) and Lucas Herbert (Australia).
