May 12: Anirban Lahiri returns to PGA Tour action after almost a month-long gap. Lahiri, who tees up at the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship in McKinney, Texas, last played at the RBC Heritage, where he missed the cut and then tested positive for Covid.
Lahiri was not slated to play the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, but missed Valspar and then took a week off when Wells Fargo was held in North Carolina to give himself more time to recover.
Now fully recovered, Lahiri plays with Aaron Baddeley and Kelly Kraft in the first round and will tee off from the tenth in the afternoon wave.
Though Lahiri was fifth at Texas Open, he has missed six cuts in nine starts in 2021. After somewhat disappointing results, he seemed to be finding form as he was fifth in Texas, but missed cut the following week at RBC Heritage. He has not played since, so he will be keen on getting a good result at Byron Nelson Championship.
Lahiri is looking for his maiden win on the PGA Tour and his last worldwide title was at home in the Hero Indian Open in 2015.
This week will also see the return of Hideki Matsuyama, who makes his first appearance since the win at the Masters. Matsuyama went home to a hero’s welcome and is now back for the PGA Tour action.
World Number 1, Dustin Johnson was due to tee off this week, but pulled out due to a knee issue. However, the field is packed with top stars apart from Matsuyama. They include Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Matt Kuchar, Marc Leishman, Daniel Berger, Jason Day, Bryson DeChambeau, Sung Kang, Russell Knox, Sergio Garcia, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Scottie Scheffler, Lee Westwood.
Lahiri apart, there is also , Kiradech Aphibarnrat and John Catlin, who has been having a great run in Europe.
When Matsuyama arrived in Japan he had to spend two weeks in quarantine and then met his wife, daughter and the family in Japan.
This week Matsuyama is grouped with Sung Kang and Jon Rahm and the crowds will be there and then again at next week at the PGA Championship.
The venue, the TPC Craig Ranch, designed by Tom Weiskopf and will play as Par-72 and stretch 7,468 yards. It hosted the Korn Ferry Tour Finals in 2008 and 2012.
