Plaudits roll in for ‘exceptional’ Anirban Lahiri

New Delhi: Anirban Lahiri on Monday rose 15 places to world number 38 on the strength of his unprecedented tied fifth place finish at the PGA Championships. Lahiri climbed from no. 53 at the start of the week to 38. His career-best is 33 which he attained at the end of March this year soon after his twin triumphs at the Malaysian Open and Indian Open, both co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours.

Lahiri also moved back into the top 10 on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai rankings and is now no. 8. The top 60 qualify for the season-ending Race to Dubai. Lahiri continues to reign on top of the Asian Tour Order of Merit, holding a handy lead of $550,000 over the next player, Andrew Dodt.

Lahiri, who was ninth and on the borderline of automatic selection (top 10), is also expected to move up to seventh on the President’s Cup rankings and seal his place on the International team, which will be announced on September 8.

Meanwhile, Asian Tour chairman Kyi Hla Han lavished praise on Lahiri, saying the Indian star would inspire a new generation of golfers in the region to take on the world. “Anirban is one of our exceptional talents to emerge from the Asian Tour in recent times. We’ve seen his career progress dramatically from his rookie season in 2008 till today and he has done well. We are happy for his success,” said Han. “I believe Anirban will achieve more success internationally and he has the right credentials to lift a Major title in the very near future.”