Anirban Lahiri mentally prepared to bounce back from FedEx Cup loss

10/03/2018

Following a poor performance at the FedEx Cup, where he finished 99th, Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri will look to redeem himself with better performances in the upcoming Safeway Open tour. Lahiri has also come out accepting his lack of concentration that led to the bad performances in the FedEx Cup.

The 31-year-old Lahiri was let down by his "short game" and "lapse of concentration" as he finished 99th in the recently-concluded FedEx Cup points standings following four top-10s. He had finished 51st on the rankings in the previous 2016-17 PGA TOUR season. Looking back, the former Asian Tour No.1 said his short game let him down.

"The only difference between the times I played well and didn't play well was the short game and putting. Weeks I got in the mix was when I didn't drop a lot of shots and kept my game really tight," he said. "In the last few months, starting with the PGA Championship, I had difficulty adjusting to the greens and different surfaces and it threw my confidence off and I didn't recover from that week. There were too many rounds where I lost momentum. I would get to one or two-under after five or six holes but didn't have stretches where that two-under became five-under. I didn't build on those good starts."

Lahiri has also admitted that he was undone by his wavering concentration.

"I also endured lapses in concentration, like when I would hit 15 greens in regulation and then make three bogeys. The tightness wasn't there and I was leaking too many shots," he said.

Speaking about his season gone by, the golfer said, "It was a disappointing year. I think I played decent in the summer, had top-10s at the Travelers and Akron but in the last few events, I had three missed cuts and one average finish.

"At the end of the season, you want to play your best golf but I played my worst golf. The opposite happened last year when I got to Chicago (BMW Championship) and finished 51st on the FedEx Cup standings. The goal was also to win last season but I haven't got myself into contention as consistently as I would have liked."

The seven-time Asian Tour winner said that the break was a blessing in disguise.

"I enjoyed my forced time off. I've been able to work on my fitness and with Vijay,” said Lahiri, a two-time Presidents Cup International team member will tee up at Silverado Resort and Spa North starting on Thursday.

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