Aug 4: Anirban Lahiri feels Wyndham Championship has a special place for Indians, for this is where Arjun Atwal won India’s one and only PGA Tour title. That was way back in 2010 and now Lahiri wants to have a shot while also securing his card for next year.
“Wyndham is special for us Indians since Arjun (Atwal) won it almost a decade ago (in 2010). I still remember my first time here, about seven years back, and I actually tried to relive Arjun’s journey,” Lahiri said during an online PGA Tour interaction on Tuesday. “I know it has been a bit of a topsy-turvy season for me. I did well at the Players. But after I took a break (in May for the birth of his second son) I somewhat struggled. Even when I was playing well, it was not translating into good finishes.
Lahiri’s form in 2022 has seen its share oof ups and downs. He was second in the Players Championship but has not been able to replicate or better that.
The Indian golfer is looking forward to the Wyndham Championship, starting on Wednesday in Greensboro, North Carolina. Because last year, it was at this meet, that he earned his PGTA Tour Card for this season.
“But I have been working on my game and hopefully this week will be fruitful. I do hope I will be able to retain my card. You can feel the nervous energy among golfers here at Wyndham. A lot depends on this week for the next season.” Asked if he was doing any special training to get his form back, he said: “Not really. I am just training well. I need to get that head space back. I needed to clean up a few nagging things in my game, and hopefully I have been able to do that with my coach.”
Lahiri said, “Yeah, it’s been a decent year. I would have said it’s been a good year a couple months ago, but I think I’ve tapered off a little bit in the summer. Didn’t really play much and when I did, I haven’t played my best. Actually spent about 10 days in India, just came back to the U.S. last week. So yeah, went back, saw my coach, who I hadn’t seen in a while. Just felt like I needed to clean up on my game. Like I said, I hadn’t been playing my best. So coming in with some rest, with some good work under my belt and looking to make a charge late in the season. This is the time of the year to play your best and hopefully make it all the way to the TOUR Championship, that’s definitely one of the goals.”
On his second straight entry into Play offs, he added, “ Well, I’ve been there, I’ve done that plenty of times. Like I just said, you want to get hot at the right time of the year. There’s never a bad time to play well, but if there’s ever a good time to play well, it’s now, especially starting next week. You can have a pretty average year, but if your good week, you’re in the Playoffs, it will give the entire season a different outlook.”
A lot of people have been asking me why I haven’t played much coming in. I took about two or three weeks off after the Scottish. I just wanted to be at my best going into this last stretch. And this year, because I played better, it afforded me the luxury of being able to do that, so yeah, looking to make the most of it.”
On the question of Liv golf, he said, “The PGA Tour is always going to be the pinnacle of professional golf. The competition here, the tournaments that are here, the history, it’s always going to be in its own place.
I think since I’m talking to the Indian media today, I think you can describe LIV Golf quite a bit like the IPL of golf, so to speak. It’s glamorous, it’s a different format, it’s a lot of money. It’s a lot of things that professional golf hasn’t been and those things have its own place.
But when you talk about competitive golf and the level of golf, obviously the PGA Tour is the hardest place to play golf, therefore it’s always been the best place to play golf.
There’s opinions from every side and as far as I’m concerned, I just keep my head down. I’m here, I’m just focused on playing the Playoffs. I just want to keep playing well.”
On what he has worked on with his coach Vijay Divecha in last few days, he said, “I think it was long overdue to see Vijay. I’m very glad that I made that decision in Scotland and I flew out immediately to India. We spent a good 10 days or so and we worked on a bunch of different things. I knew that there were four or five little nagging things that I needed to clean up in my game, and on occasion I was confused as to which one I fix first.
To briefly summarize, we looked at my grip, we looked at my posture, which has been my long‑standing issue, so to speak, and then we also looked at kind of taking those aspects, those factors and finding a way to put it into my pre‑shot routine. So I worked with my performance coach, my performance specialist in Bangalore and Vijay as a team to see how we can create a process or a system whereby the technique kind of falls in line with what I do on a day‑to‑day basis. So it was a very interesting, very fruitful trip.”
“I also spent some time with my friends, which is always chicken soup for my soul and that always makes me feel very upbeat. It always makes me come back here with a little more vigor because I see a lot of the youngsters, the amateurs, the young professionals and it makes me want to play better because they look up to me and all of that. “
