June 10, 2017: Indian players are making their presence felt in the fairways by grooming their game in the domestic circuit, and making a global impression.
Anirban Lahiri saw his career-best joint second place finish in the Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament in Ohio last week. Anirban’s future seemed doubtful on PGA tour till last week, untill he achieved this after carding an “ace” with his bogey-free seven-under 65 in final round that raised the roof on Asian golf.
“There are so many things you can push for. I haven’t played a Major or WGC this year. I should get the last Major, the PGA Championship, hopefully. But that kind of plays on your mind. You feel like you’re going backwards,” he said. “So you just have to gather yourself and go back to what you have been doing. So I’m just doing that, just going to focus on my golf, be good to myself and let the results take care of themselves.”, Anirban said to Businesstimes.
Indian’s first major taking point started with SSP Chawrasia’s Indian Open triumph on the European Tour in early 2017. And the same being continued with Shiv Kapur’s win and a tied-second finish in back-to-back events on the Asian Tour last month and Gaganjeet Bhullar‘s tied second in the last event he played in Asia.
Arjun Atwal and Jeev Milkha Singh also achieved several memorable events finishing close to each other in top three at all major tours.
The second half of the year seems more promising for Indian’s with the better form they had now, and with their current Official World Golf rankings this week at Anirban Lahiri is World no 65 (from 77 in 2016), Gaganjeet Bhullar 160 (169), S.S.P Chawrasia 183 (214), and Shiv Kapur is 305 (718).
“Indians had produced good performances in the past, but new faces making their mark in these events means things are improving. If you notice, the number of Indians getting noticed in these circuits has increased, Anirban’s obviously is a big achievement because it came at the highest level. And someone like Shiv bouncing back (from loss of form and illness) shows there is fire and hunger in our golfers.”, Chawrasia said in an interview to Express on Friday.
It’s the sense of dissatisfaction at moderate success that distinguishes today’s Indian golf pro. In all likelihood, it also explains why their graph is on a slow but steady upward curve.
