The man on Anirban Lahiri’s side at his key milestones

Anirban Lahiri’s recent success has received global accolades. A seven-time Asian Tour winner, Lahiri has won four tournaments that included two victories in co-sanctioned events with the European Tour in Malaysia and India in the last 15 months. He finished T5 at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin earlier in August.

One man instrumental in helping guide Lahiri is his old caddie Rajeev who joined back with the golfer during the The Open at St Andrew’s. “He’s going to be bringing lots of positivity to my game. We work together very well especially in the mental aspect. He understands how I think and operates and he knows how to bring out the best in me. That’s why he’s back,” said Lahiri.

The first time Rajeev caddied for Lahiri was nearly a decade ago when he was an amateur. “I like his temperament and his attitude,” he told GolfingIndian. That good caddies can improve any golfer’s performance has been evident by the several high profile golfer-caddie relationships we have seen in the headlines. Research done in 2014 showed, “a good quality caddie relationship can improve a golfer’s performance by 30%.” The research published by Loughborough University went on to suggest that the 4 Cs of Closeness, Commitment, Complementarity and Co-Orientation define a quality player-caddie relationship.

Double Open Champion Padraig Harrington is in no doubt of the value of the right caddie according to a report by Iboro. The Irishman, who won the Claret Jug in 2007 and 2008, said: “It’s simple. In 2007 my caddie Ronan Flood won me The Open.”

Lahiri termed the patience and reassurance a caddie brings to a golfer one of the central pieces of the relationship. “For him the glass is always half full and he keeps me in a really good frame of mind,” says the world number 38. The research too had that long-term partnerships tend to be more successful and desirable.