Shooting a hole in one is one of the hardest feats in sports. Acing a hole is a golfer’s ultimate dream, which requires great skill and lots of luck. Anirban Lahiri turned his maiden major tournament – the 2012 Open Championship at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire into his most memorable outing, first by making the cut (68-72) and then with a hole-in-one at the par-3 9th hole in the third round.

Q. Your hole-in-one at the recent British Open is the talk of the town. Can you tell us what goes into achieving something that remarkable?

A. As far as a hole in one goes, you cant really expect or work towards making one. You just try to hit it as close as you can and sometimes you just get lucky.

Q. Considering this was your maiden experience at a major tournament, how difficult was it to adapt to the weather conditions at Lytham?

A. For one thing I was expecting it to be cold and damp, so I wasn’t surprised at how the weather was. Luckily over the past few years I have played in cold and wet conditions in Korea and Japan so I drew on those experiences to get me through the Open week.

Q. Our readers would like to know a little about your roots. What age did you take up golf at, and what made you opt for the sport?

A. I am a second generation army kid who grew up all over India in various Army cantonments till the age of 17. Thanks to my golf fanatic father, I started playing golf at the age of 8 on one of the several Amy courses that I grew up on. It was always fun and still is, though the thought of turning pro only occurred to me when I was about 19. Though I liked and played a multitude of sports as a kid, golf was by far the most peaceful and satisfying for me.

Q. Which is your favorite golf course on the Asian Tour?

A. The Delhi Golf Club is probably my favorite venue given I won both my Asian Tour titles there.

Q. What’s your mindset like when it’s not your day and you’re not swinging at your best ? Who do you look up for inspiration at such times?

A. Sometimes when you’re not playing your best you just have to keep grinding i.e. stay calm and focussed and make the most of every opportunity. The moment you let the frustration get the better of you, the battle will be lost. I look to my Vipassana meditation at times like that to keep me in the zone and balanced.

Q. With the introduction of several Asian and European Tour events and the influx of sponsorship deals and TV coverage for major events, do you think PGTI is leading Indian golf on the right path?

A. I think Indian Professional golf has progressed a lot in the last 5 years under the aegis of the PGTI. Golf is a growing sport in India and hopefully it keeps moving in that direction. We do have bigger international events but even the domestic tour has grown steadily despite the economic fluctuations and that augurs well for the future.

Q. How do you see your career progressing in the next few years? Do you see yourself following the footsteps of Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal to the European tour?

A. Difficult to predict anything in sport, but hopefully I can move westward to higher tours in Europe and America and compete regularly with the best in the world.

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