Lahiri, Kiradech eye redemption at Players C’ship
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, US: Anirban Lahiri will be looking to put behind his last three forgettable performances at the Players Championship when this year’s tournament tees off on Thursday. He has never needed a good result like he does in these next few weeks.
The Players Championship has not been good to him in the past three starts, all of which ended after 36 holes.
While Lahiri is upset with his starts, Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat wants to erase memories of a quadruple bogey seven at the 17th last year. That Island Green took away the chance he had of a top-10 finish.
However, Lahiri, who is working on some technical changes in his swing feels the ‘rectification work’ is beginning to click and he is close to setting that right.
Lahiri hopes and feels becoming a father for the first time last month and the shifting in the date of the Championship to March away from its previous slot in May, could change his fortunes, too.
Lahiri, who till recently used to be seen as a good putter, has been suffering on the greens. On Monday, he was there till late and was in fact the last to leave the practice green at the TPC Sawgrass. “The putter needs to work once again,” he said.
“I’m having one super-destructive round at every event of late,” said Lahiri. “I am making technical changes to my swing which is why there is some inconsistency. Some days I hit it great, some days I don’t. I’ve also been inconsistent on the greens. In the 80 that I shot last week, I lost six shots on putting which is not me. I’m going to be spending a lot of time on the greens this week.”
Meanwhile, at last year’s Championship, Kiradech launched a brilliant final day campaign, getting to eight-under for the day before a quadruple bogey 7 at the Island Green at par-3 17th signature hole sank his hopes. He still had a round of 67. But for that quad, Kiradech would have got his full exempt status straight away instead of waiting till later. Earlier in the week he had a double at the same hole. But for those six shots, he could potentially have been Tiedsecond but instead finished T30th.
This year he is in fine form again. Earlier this month, Kiradech was T3 finish at the World Golf Championships-mexico Championship.