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Within a span of six months, Indian ace golfer Anirban Lahiri has gone from Asian Tour obscurity to becoming one of the top golfers in the world. The meteoric rise was highlighted with a tied 5th finish at the PGA Championship, which was the highest by an Indian at a major. Now, the 28-year old has yet another feat to his name, the first ever Indian to qualify for the President’s Cup.
The qualification on the International Standings shut on Monday, and Lahiri finished an impressive 7th, automatically qualifying for the event. The President’s Cup is a series of men’s golf matches, which is played between the best golfers of United States of America and an international dream team. Along with Lahiri, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee is the other Asian in the dream team.
Lahiri has also won two European titles this year, the Maybank Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open and is continuing with his stellar run so far. An ecstatic Lahiri said, “I can't describe the feeling because growing up, you look up to events like the Ryder Cup and feel terrible about it as you can't be a part of something like that.”
He added, “I’m looking forward to being a part of the International Team. It'll be a massive boost for golf in the region. You get so many eyeballs and everybody in America will be watching.”
The Cup is a matchplay based event and world number 40 Lahiri has quite a decent record in this format. He was a part of Asian team at the Eurasian Cup and successfully won two out of three points in his tie against Victor Dubuisson.
Last year’s Eurasia Cup saw Asia come from behind to end the tournament in a draw at 10-10, Jaidee captained the Asians and won the all important final round against Graeme McDowell.
Jeev Milkha Singh almost qualified for the President’s Cup, when he was ranked in the world’s top 50, but narrowly missed out.
