Thai star keen to duel with Lahiri
World number 83 Kiradech Aphibarnrat made his breakhrough as a professional golfer in India, winning the Sail Open back in 2011. Since then, he has played around the world, on the Asian, Japan, European and US PGA tours, rising as high as 50th in the world rankings.
The chunky golfer from Thailand obviously has fond memories of India, and is back for the first time in six years for the Hero Indian Open, ahead of which he shared his thoughts. Excerpts:
On the course: The course is fantastic, it’s in good shape. The first time I walked into the club, I can’t imagine this course is in Asia, or in India. It should be a course in Europe. It’s in such good condition from tee to green, some of the greens can be too tough but it’s going to provide the challenge this week.
On his strategy for the course: You have to stay out of trouble. It’s narrow and the greens are tough. You have miss the right side if you hit a bad shot. You can easily three putt for sure. You can’t get up and down on some of the greens. Just get into the right position and stay away from the bunker. Just hit the greens. 17 is a short hole and when you see on the book, it looks like an easy hole. But when you stand at the tee, you don’t know where to hit. Hit it 160 and have another shot from 160. But let’s see. On the Indian challenge: India has great players. I want to congratulate all the events in India as most of the local players win them. That’s the best thing to get players on Tour. Players like Anirban win locally and then become great players. This week could be a good week as Anirban is back from the US.
My goal is to win this week as I want to get into the WGC Match Play and also maybe the Masters.
Maybe it’ll be good find if I can fight with Anirban again in a Major. It’s been like three years we’ve not played together. But he’s on fire right now and I’ll have to play my A-game this week to upset him.