Nightmarish nine costs Lahiri first PGA Tour title

Kuala Lumpur, October 23

For the second week in a row, Anirban Lahiri had to deal with heartbreak as he failed to cross the line after being enjoying a four-shot lead at the end of three rounds. Lahiri shot a 72 in the fourth round here today to eventually finish tied third in the CIMB Classic.

Lahiri dropped a crippling quadruple bogey on the par-5 third hole. That disaster wiped away his overnight lead in one single hole. Last week Lahiri lost the title in a play-off after seven birdies in a row in the last seven holes in Macao.

Justin Thomas (64), meanwhile, birdied two of the first three holes to go ahead and then kept his foot on the pedal to retain the title that he won 12 months ago. Thomas never let go of the lead despite a great fightback from Lahiri, who birdied the fourth and eagled the fifth to make amends. But this proved insufficient as he bogeyed the sixth and thereafter his putts kept hitting the edges and not falling in.

The only consolation for Lahiri was that this was his best finish on the PGA Tour, bettering on his tied 5th at the 2015 PGA Championship. Lahiri, thus, is off to a good start to the 2016-17 season. Thomas ended up with a 23-under 265, three clear of Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who closed with a 66 today. Lahiri tied for third with Derek Fathauer (67) at 19-under in the $7 million event sanctioned jointly by the Asian Tour and PGA Tour.

Missed opportunity

While Thomas moved to the top of the FedEx Cup standings, Lahiri saw a whole lot of rewards slip away. A win would have earned him a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour, besides virtually ensuring him a place in the FedEx Cup play-offs at the end of the season — the winner here got 500 points and the last place to get into the play-offs in the 2015-16 season needed 408 points. A win with a purse of $1.26 million would also have sealed for Lahiri a second straight top spot on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, taken him into the top-50 of the world rankings, and got him an invite for the Masters tournament.

Lahiri had his woes each day. He had back-to-back bogeys on the last two holes in the first round and a double bogey on the last hole in the second; in the third round, he had yet another double bogey, though he showed great resilience to bounce back and lead by four strokes. Today on the par-5 third, which he had birdied on the second and third days, an errant drive ended among the palm trees. From there Lahiri tried to salvage his position with a brave shot but failed. — PTI