DEFENDING DANES UP FOR THE FIGHT AT WORLD CUP
GOLF: It took only a chat about balls at Melbourne’s Metropolitan Golf Club for Team India to bring up cricket and how a World Cup of Golf win might penetrate the masses at home.
Anirbarn Lahiri, who is teaming with Gaganjeet Bhullar, bought in to the fervour being created by the looming cricket clashes with Australia, declaring he was armed and ready for his own round-one contest today.
“I’m going to practise all my Japanese sledges,” Lahiri, who has been as high as 33 in the world and twice played in the Presidents Cup, joked ahead of the opening showdown with his Japanese opponents.
“No, no, golf is a gentleman’s sport, as cricket is supposed to be.”
Continuing the cricket theme, Thorbjorn Olesen has an Aussie sense of fight about him that should guarantee a stirring effort as Denmark seeks back-toback wins in the 28-team showdown.
Australian cricket great Shane Warne has played enough golf with the world No.42 to see those fighting qualities.
The pair are friends and Warne even sent Olesen a “go get ’em” text message the morning of his Ryder Cup debut in September. Olesen, playing again with Soren Kjeldsen this week after the pair’s 2016 World Cup victory at Kingston Heath, agreed his fight was a key Danish quality and one he could need in the hunt for the $3 million first prize.
Warne met Olesen playing in a proam in England and said he couldn’t help be enthusiastic about a guy who played the way he did.
“He’s got that competitive streak in him, that Aussie style of competitive juices,” Warne said.
Olesen, 29, also doesn’t hold back off the course, a bit like Warne, and revealed his victory party in 2016 included using his replica World Cup very specifically.
“I’ve been drinking out of that. We had a nice little party, me and my friends, and filled it up,” he said.
Ominous weather warnings yesterday narrowed pre-event focus to navigating wet and wild conditions for the opening of the prestigious $9.6 million event.
Organisers pre-empted the potential round-one downpour, which could make any perceived advantages for Aussie duo Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith redundant, by moving tee times forward one hour.