Anirban Lahiri is playing the Hero World Challenge for the first time as part of the top 18 pros playing the tournament at Albany, Bahamas. Golf clearly in India has been growing at a very fast pace and we at Hero have a major hand in the development of golf in India. Not just in India, but Hero has been associated with various events across the globe now. Hero is a sponsor on five different tours concurrently.
“Tournaments really are growing in India at a very good speed and the prize money is also growing every year. Hero clearly in its expansion plans, global expansion plans, is hugely focused on Latin America and Africa, and as I had said last year, we’re adding new markets every year and we’re looking forward to now adding Mexico, Argentina and Nigeria very soon into our global markets,” shared Pawan Munjal, Hero MotoCorp.
John Bush: Anirban, what a fantastic season you’ve had, just talk a little bit about capping it off with your first start ever here at the Challenge.
Anirban Lahiri: Yeah, it’s been a very, very important year for me. It’s been a great year, lots of firsts. Getting my card for next year in America, playing the Presidents Cup, top five at Whistling Straits. So I’ve had a highlight?filled year. But just being here at such a great event amongst the best players in the world. I would like to thank Mr. Munjal and the Tiger Woods Foundation for having me because these are the kind of events and fields that you want to play against every week and I’m really excited. So I’m looking forward to a good week.
Anirban Lahiri talked about how the last one year changed him. And what he feels like playing in possibly the most elite field in the golf world. “I think it was last year I remember meeting Tiger in February when he would come to India for a day and a number of things happened last year even before I went to Q?School in Europe. Obviously it was fantastic for me to get to meet him and know him. Also, one of his friends, who’s also a dear friend of mine, Arjun, spoke to me a lot later in the year when he played a lot of golf with me out in Asia and he was the first person to say that you’re one of the few guys whose game I think is ready for America.
Did I think I would be here? Probably not, but it’s obviously been there at the back of my mind, I’ve always believed that I can compete with the best players in the world.
And at that point in time it wasn’t the easiest thing to go to Q?School, and with where I was in my career it wasn’t viable for me to play Web.com, which is probably the best option if you want to play in America. That was my primary reason of going to Europe, the sense of frustration that was brewing, that I had outgrown playing on the Asian Tour to some extent, I wanted to push myself. And the fact that it would give me the opportunity to raise my world ranking, try to get into the 50 and thereafter try to get more events in America.
Did I think I would be here? Probably not, but it’s obviously been there at the back of my mind, I’ve always believed that I can compete with the best players in the world. And it’s nice to see how my game has progressed, how my belief has progressed and it’s great to be here. Hopefully I can be a part of this great event many times in the future.
