Gallant Anirban Lahiri misses out

Report by Anand Datla

May 2, 2015: Anirban Lahiri has been an absolute revelation this week at the WGC Cadillac Match Play event inside the TPC Harding Park, just outside San Francisco. The Indian was inches from qualifying for what may have been a thrilling weekend with the gladiators of golf. As it stands though, he was edged out by Marc Leishman on the 18th hole of their final round robin match to advance to the last 16.

Lahiri extended Justin Rose to an extra hole in their match yesterday and he continued to display similar resilience against Leishman on Saturday. The 34th ranked Indian finished third in group six, having finished with a 1-2 result. Lahiri won his first match against Ryan Palmer before suffering excruciatingly narrow losses to Rose and Leishman.

In his third match, Lahiri knew nothing but a win will do. He started off in great style, making two straight birdies to begin his match against Leishman.

Lahiri was 1 Up after the first hole, when he sank a birdie from 5 feet, where Leishman only managed a par after taking five shots. Both men made birdies at the par-3 second.

The Indian hit the rough when he veered right with his second shot at the par-4 third hole. That cost him the lead and allowed Leishman to draw even with just a par.

The Aussie pulled ahead with a birdie at the par-5 fifth hole and for the first time this week, Anirban faced a deficit.  Both men bogeyed the seventh, but Leishman found a birdie at the ninth to go 2 Up.

At the 11th hole, Anirban made a birdie to Leishman’s bogey five, but then no one was counting shots. This is Match Play and a hole counts only for one, irrespective of the margin in shots.

Lahiri was all square again when he made another birdie at the 12th to set up an intriguing finish to this engaging contest. Continuing to play aggressively, as he had all week, Lahiri surrendered the lead again with a bogey at the 13th hole.

At the 14th Lahiri made an even four, but Leishman shot a double bogey six to allow the Indian to draw even. With four holes left to play, Anirban needed some magic, but he only found a bogey at the 15th to surrender the lead back to Leishman.

The two players split the final three holes to ensure Leishman edged out Rose and Lahiri from the group. Ironically, Lahiri was 1-under for the round, where Leishman was 1-over – but it was the Aussie who walked away smiling with a 1 Up victory.

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