Lahiri happy to be back at Players; Fans will get to see ‘every shot live’

Anirban Lahiri-Filepic

March 10: Anirban Lahiri returns to PGA Tour’s flagship event for the Players Championship for the fifth time, but is still looking at making a meaningful mark at the event in Ponte Vedra.

Lahiri was the first alternate to start with, but then made it to the main draw as former World No. 1 Brooks Koepka pulled out due an injury. That has provided Lahiri a chance to find momentum in the season that has so far produced mixed results for him.

Lahiri, as usual candidly, said, “It’s nice to be back. I didn’t realize it’s my fifth time back. I really like this golf course, I love the way it is set up and I feel like it’s one of those tracks where I can do really well. My record doesn’t show that though.”

“The game has been a little patchy, up and down, but I think it’s trending back in the right direction. I have a couple of things that I’ve been working on and they seem to be falling into place, so it’s all about putting it together now.”

The 154-player field includes more than 100 PGA Tour winner and 48 of the world’s Top-50 are at TPC Sawgrass including Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Bryson Dechambeau, Justin Thomas and many others.

Apart from the star-studded field, the tournament will also set a unique landmark. This week at THE Players Championship golf fans will be able to enjoy ‘Every Shot Live’ on GOLFTV powered by PGA TOUR, made available exclusively by the PGA TOUR.

It will be available from the first round and every shot by every player will be live-streamed on GOLFTV allowing fans to follow any player in the elite field. More than 32,000 shots are expected over 72 holes from a starting field. Fans will be able to choose what players to watch, how you watch and stream on different devices.

Lahiri has played at the Players both in May and March and sees a change in weather between the two periods. “Well, obviously three of my previous appearances were in May, with different weather. I played in 2019 in March. But it’s going to be slightly different in terms of the temperatures and the wind. If anything I think this is probably a better wind for my game style. So the one thing I haven’t done as well in the past is probably hit as many fairways as you need to. On the weekend the greens are going to get really firm and fast, we all know that, so it’s going to be critical to come in from the short grass to really control the ball and that’s going to be my mine focus this week. “

Lahiri did not make it to the field at last year’s edition of Players, and the event itself was cancelled after the first round and the Tour shut down for three months.

Lahiri said, “Well I think it’s been a year now, a full circle pretty much since COVID struck the golfing world.  For me it was, there was a lot of good that came out of it. I did get a lot done in India, I went back for the Hero Indian Open, which was the week after THE PLAYERS last year. And that ended up being a good thing for me, because I got a lot of time at home with my coach and just managed to reassemble all the parts that were kind of getting a little rickety.”

On what it would take make a serious bid for the title, Lahiri elaborated, “I mean, all the guys who have won here previously have driven the ball really well and putted really well. I think those are the two things that are going to be really, really important. So you have to have all the departments firing and also that’s why it’s not so heavily dominated by someone who hits it miles or who has a really exceptional short game, you got to do everything good and you got to drive and putt well more than anything else.”

Read also:

Lahiri gets into The Players as Koepka pulls out

 

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