Indian open: Looking for home comforts

PTI

Gurugram, March 27

His Olympics hopes hanging by a thread, star Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri’s ambitious effort to make the Paris Games cut by ending a nine-year-long title drought will be a fascinating subplot as the prestigious Hero Indian Open tees off here tomorrow.

A two-time Olympian, Lahiri, who will return to the national championships, finds himself in a tight spot as his ranking plummeted to 401 after he switched to Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which is not recognised by the Official World Golf Rankings, jeopardising his Paris chances.

It will be Lahiri’s homecoming, the Indian having won his last title at the same event way back in 2015. He hoping to regain the crown at the 57th edition of the tournament at the DLF Golf and Country Club this week.

I want to win, I am desperate to win. I have to prove to myself that I can win again. It’s been a while. —Anirban Lahiri on not winning a title since 2015

This is our fifth ‘Major’. And this is my second home. This is where I played so much golf from 2012 to 2016. —Shubhankar Sharma on his familiarity with the golf course

“I want to win, I am desperate to win,” said Lahiri. “I have to prove to myself that I can win again. It’s been a while and nobody feels that more than I do. So even though I’ve played 15, 16 years, I’m still as desperate to win this week as I was 10, 15 years ago, because I have to prove it to myself. I don’t have to prove it to anybody else,” he added.

“I would love to go to Paris. So I need to focus on potentially eight rounds or 12 rounds that I have between now and Paris that will get me there. I will find those events on the Asian Tour, but it depends on a lot of variables. Olympics remains an unfinished business,” he added.

Lahiri is currently the third Indian in the official rankings behind Shubhankar Sharma (202) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (240). The cut-off date for the men’s competition of the Olympic Games is June 17.

Only 60 golfers each in the men’s and women’s categories make the field in the Olympics with the top 15 ranked players making the cut with a limit of four players from a given country. Countries with players who are not ranked in the top-15 will get a maximum of two eligible players.

Among the Indian golfers, Sharma (48) and Bhullar (52) are inside the top-60 Games rankings created by the International Golf Federation.

The 36-year-old Lahiri will have to compete with a total of 144 players from over 25 countries as they vie for the top honours at the $2.25 million tournament. Almost a third of the players in the field have won on the DP World at some point.

Sharma and Bhullar will be favourites to go deep into the tournament. It has been a while since an Indian has won the event, with SSP Chawrasia claiming the titles in 2016 and 2017.

Ryder Cup winner Rasmus Hojgaard will be one of the favourites this week, while the other top international stars include Yannik Paul, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Nicolas Colsaerts, Matteo Manassero and Edoardo Molinari.

Manu Gandas, Shourya Binu, Rashid Khan, Aman Raj, Yuvraj Sandhu, S Chikkarangappa, Karandeep Kochhar and Veer Ahlawat will be some exciting domestic players to watch out for during the week.

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