‘Feels good to relive memory of my first amateur title win at Chandigarh Golf Club’: Anirban Lahiri
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Updated: December 3, 2020 12:15:30 pm
While Lahiri has won a total of 12 titles on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) circuit in his professional career, Lahiri has not played on the PGTI Tour since 2014. (Kamleshwar Singh)
In 2004, when a young Anirban Lahiri won the title in the Indian Golf Union Samarveer Sahi Amateur Golf Championship in Chandigarh, it was Lahiri’s first win on the amateur circuit. The 33-year-old Indian golfer, who has returned from the USA after competing in five PGA Tour tournaments, will play in Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational presented by Take Sports at Chandigarh Golf Club starting Wednesday. The 2016 Rio Olympian golfer still feels motivated by the 2004 win and terms it a good memory to propel him to a good finish this week.
“It feels good to relive the memory of winning my first amateur title here at Chandigarh Golf Club 16 years ago and it does seem like a lifetime ago. It was a phase when I was able to break through and it acts as a sense of belief that I can play well on the Chandigarh Golf Course. It is very important that one hits a very good tee shot. If you can do that, you put yourself in all the four days of competition. While the greens are not that fast as I am used to, they are still in a good shape and the key will be to adapt,” said the nine-time international winner golfer.
While Lahiri has won a total of 12 titles on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) circuit in his professional career, Lahiri has not played on the PGTI Tour since 2014. His last PGTI title came in the form of PGTI Ahmedabad Masters before he earned his PGA Tour card in 2016. Lahiri, whose tied-fifth finish in the PGA Championship in 2015 is the best finish by any Indian golfer in a major championship, had regained his PGA Tour card for 2019-2020 season and has played in five PGA Tour events starting August this year with a tied-sixth place finish in the Corales Championship his best finish of this season so far.
“I went back to the USA in August when the travel restrictions ended. While I played one pending tournament of the 2019-2020 season, playing in four tournaments in the 2020-2021 season has boosted my performance. There were a lot of positives for me in every event and I played some good golf in each tournament. While I trained in India prior to going back to the USA, I had to take my time to adjust to USA conditions where the greens are much faster and there are different type of grasses on different courses,” Lahiri said.
