The Open: Anirban Lahiri plays astoundingly well in round two

Report by Anand Datla

July 17, 2015: Mark this week down on your calendars. It is a time for exuberance for Indian golfing fans, who have turned the art of starving into a patient celebration. Yet, playing with enormous calm and patience, Anirban Lahiri shot one of the best rounds ever by an Indian golfer in a major tournament to surge into the top 10 at The Open Championship. Lahiri only shot 70, but it was a spotless master class that underlined the young Indian’s great promise. By the time he signed his card and entered the club house inside St Andrews, he was lying T9 at 5-under through 36 holes. Irrespective of what transpires through the weekend, you can puff up chest and announce to your friends that an Indian golfer is in contention at the mother of all tournaments.

“We never have an Indian or Asian winner at The Open and it would be nice if I can get into contention on Sunday,” said Lahiri, who is just four behind the current leader Danny Willett of England. (This is at the time of the post and could change through the day)

Over the past two days, Lahiri has been mighty impressive. You can be sure that Indian golf writers are breathing heavy and battling for words to describe the true gravity of this performance from the man from Bengaluru. It is difficult to believe that the 28 year old golfer is making his debut, from the evidence available from the first two rounds of this tournament.

“St Andrews is about putting yourself into a good position off the tee. If you can do that, you can think about playing aggressively,” said a confident Lahiri. “If you’re not in position, you’ll then be looking at targets where you can hit and make pars easily. I made sure I was able to do that and I think the result showed today.”

The weather in the morning was far from perfect. Many spots on the course turned into puddles of water, needing three to four grown men to sweep away gallons of water into the adjoining drain. Eventually by the time they could the course ready by around 1000am local time, over three hours had been lost.

The delay though did not seem to harm Lahiri. Showing enormous composure, he got his card singing to the tune of a birdie at the very first hole. Having taken care of the start, Anirban settled into a brilliant rhythm making par after par with a reassuring regularity.

After going through a dozen consecutive pars, Lahiri accounted for his next gain with a birdie at the 14th hole. He now had the measure of this pristine course, but the 17th was looming just ahead. Anirban made bogey the first time he went past it in the previous round.

And when he sailed past the most dangerous hole on the course without a hint of damage, it was clear that Anirban was set for a bogey free round yet again. It was the second time this season that Anirban achieved the feat – who can forget the resilient bogey free 72 in the final round of the Masters?

Impressively, Anirban was acutely aware of the potential on his bag, expressing a hint a disappointment at his failure to push on and score better. “It was frustrating because I hit many good shots but was just not making the putts,” said Lahiri. “But I was conscious not to be too hard on myself as it’s so easy to tell yourself you are not going to get too many opportunities and you got to make a lot of them count,” he signed off quickly adding perspective to his earlier thought.

“I was very patient and that was the key for me today,” he said. With two rounds to go, there is no questioning the fact that he will need plenty of the same as he heads into a promising weekend at the Mecca of golf.

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