New Delhi: Star golfer Anirban Lahiri is hoping his love for links golf will lead to a strong showing at the Open that begins at Royal Troon in Scotland on Thursday.
The reigning Asian Tour number one, making his fourth appearance in the world’s oldest championship, is eager to improve on a career best tied fifth outing in a major tournament achieved at the PGA Championship last season.
“The Open has always been good to me, so I’m hoping for a good run,” said Lahiri, who made a hole-in-one in his debut at Royal Lytham in 2012 and was tied 30th at St Andrews last year.
After a spectacular 2015 season where he won twice in Asia, made his Presidents Cup debut, earned his PGA Tour card and broke into the world’s top-50, Lahiri’s 2016 campaign has been rather muted with only two top-10s thus far, one in Asia and the other in the United States.
He conceded that competing in his rookie PGA Tour season has been challenging as he faces a new golf course almost every week. Hence, a return to a links setup in Scotland has provided him with a fresh confidence booster.
“I prefer playing links courses to parkland courses probably because we don’t play enough of it and also because you have to be more creative as it’s less sterile. You have to control your ball flight, up and down and sideways and you have to have a lot more feel,” said Lahiri.
“The best thing about links golf is that it’s not about the power game. It’s strategy and precision. Even my best finish in America this year at the Colonial was on one of the shortest and tightest courses.”
This week’s Open championship will mark the start of an exciting run of big tournaments for Lahiri which includes the PGA Championship and the Olympic Games.
