Fifty shades of Lahiri

New Delhi, July 27

It was a great week for Anirban Lahiri as he returned to Top 50 in the world rankings, besides regaining his Top10 place in the Race to Dubai list of the European Tour. He also extended his lead on the Asian Tour Merit list by over half-a-million dollars.

Lahiri is also expected to be back in Top 10 of the President’s Cup standings, which if he maintains till September will earn him an automatic spot in the international team and make him the first Indian to do so.

Lahiri returned to Top 50 after being edged out three weeks ago. The Bangalore golfer, who finished fifth at the Omega European Masters, earned 7.68 points and that carried his total points to an average of 2.4360, securing him the 50th place. It was a jump of 11 places from where he was after the British Open last week.

Lahiri, who won the Malaysian Open and the Indian Open this season, registered his first Top 5 finish since February and picked up $123,956 to take his season’s tally to $925,484 on the Asian Tour.

He went past the million Euro mark in Europe and is placed ninth. Lahiri also extended his lead on the Asian Tour money to more than half-a-million dollars and is also back in Top10 on the Race to Dubai list, which will put him in line for a bonus for being in the Top 15 of the European Merit list.

He is also likely to move into Top 10 of the President’s Cup standings and become the first Indian to play the President’s Cup in Korea from October 8-11 this year. If Lahiri, who was third and second in the past two seasons, stays on top of the Merit list at the end of the season, he will become the fourth Indian after Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun Atwal (2003) and Jeev Milkha Singh (2006 and 2008) to become Asia’s No. 1.

In Asia, Lahiri is also hoping to top the million dollar mark and become only the third player after countryman Jeev Milkha Singh and Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand to do so. — PTI