Eloquent Lahiri speaks his mind about Olympic qualifying, life with LIV and more

It’s been close to two years since Anirban Lahiri called time as a PGA Tour regular and shifted to LIV Golf. In the months thereafter, he has come close to winning on four occasions, yet seen his world rankings drop, and chances of qualifying for the Paric Olympic Games this summer fade as the LIV Golf versus the “establishment” battle shows no signs of easing anytime soon.

Speaking to a group of journalists at an interaction set up by OTT platform FanCode, which has the India streaming rights for LIV Golf League coverage and also Formula One, the 36-year-old India star waxed eloquent on a range of subjects, from life as a LIV Golf member to his Crushers team’s habit of making Sunday runs for the title, to his dream of playing the Olympics in France.

Not only has Lahiri takes second place in individual LIV Golf competition four times, he is part of the 2023 team championship-winning Crushers GC led by Bryson DeChambeau. He calls it a fun experience and one which has benefited him personally and as a golfer, but also is hungry to make a third Olympics appearance after Rio and Tokyo.

Currently the third Indian in the official rankings at 350 behind Shubhankar Sharma (201) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (225), Lahiri is looking to earn ranking points denied to the LIV Golf fraternity via the Asian Tour and also the Hero Indian Open later this month which he will be playing for the first time after 2019.

Excerpts from the conversation

On his Olympic qualification hopes

It’s very, very important for me to represent my country. I’ve been to the Olympics two times and played well below my potential and that’s something I would love to change. And for to be able to do that I need world ranking points and unfortunately that is the only qualification system even through in my opinion that shouldn’t be the case. 

So I’m actually trying to play as many tournaments as I can outside of the LIV Golf schedule. I’m playing in Macau next week, I’ve played in Oman and most likely add one or two more events in May before the deadline in June. 

I’m going to do everything in my power to give myself the opportunity to earn those points. And that’s all I can really control , my effort and commitment, which is 110 percent. 

On India’s medal chances at Paris

Golf is a sport which is very difficult to look at a personal best in terms of a swimmer or an athlete and say ‘oh this guy has got a good chance’.

I do feel that Aditi (Ashok) and Gagan (Bhullar) have been playing really well. Shubhankar has played very well on the Le Golf National course in Paris (which will be used during the Olympics). I think Shubhankar should be a lock definitely on that flight to Paris.

Whoever gets there (Paris) I just... I hope it’s me along with the rest of the team but we have to prepare. At the end of the day, anyone of us can get on the podium but we need to peak at the right time.

On the decision to join LIV Golf after a solid 2022 season on the PGA Tour

Actually, it wasn't immediate. I finished second at the Players (Championship) in March, and played the whole season, including the playoffs in August. I only decided to move after I finished my whole season on the PGA Tour. The reasoning was very simple. 

I had been in America for a long time, seven years. I moved my family in there. I made my home there. And I think one of the amazing things that happened to me from that week at the Players Championship is how everybody thinks that I'm going to win, it's going to change my life, or I'm going to do this, and it's going to change my life. 

And I realised that one of my biggest achievements, I would say, was to come very close. Even though I didn't get over the line at the players and I found myself in the same situation where nothing really changed in my life, we still faced the same challenges. It was a lot for me, my wife, my family, we weren't very happy in terms of where we found ourselves in our lives. We weren't able to go home enough. I wasn't able to see my coach enough. 

Yeah, life was difficult. Golf was good, and we kind of started questioning ourselves as to what we really want. And that was one of the big reasons for me to actually move to LIV Golf. I didn't even contact them till middle of June, late June, after they had already started playing tournaments. So it was never my intention to move from the get go. 

It's just something that kind of happened. The timing was such that between where I found myself, we found ourselves in our lives with my golf, with where I wanted to go forward in my career, in my life as a golfer, as a parent, as husband, as a son. 

On the differences between the two tours

There’s so much of a difference. If you look at the format, the team element, that doesn’t exist on the PGA. At LIV everybody plays at the same time so you’re taking the change in conditions out of play. You’re only playing three rounds out of four so you have less time to catch up. 

You can’t get off to a bad start and catch up like you could in a four day event so the challenges and obstacles are different. You’re playing some very, very different conditions, that’s one of the biggest differences between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. Here we are playing one week in Jeddah, one week in Hong Kong and the next tournament is in Florida. Then we go to Adelaide and Singapore so you have to adapt to the travel, the conditions, the grasses. If you look at the number of major winners in LIV Golf, half the winners in the last few years are here so …

On being part of a successful LIV team with Crushers GC

It’s a lot of fun. We had a team dinner yesterday, we play practice rounds together every now and then. You get to know your team mates at a different level, you get to learn a lot. There’s so much talent here (in Crushers GC), so much ability. Some of the best that have played the game are here and playing with them, practicing with them it’s a lot of fun. 

And like last Sunday (with the Crushers recovering from a 11-shot deficit to win LIV Golf Jeddah) , it was something to remember. We are going to have times going forward you might not have a good couple of days and Im sure sone of the guys on a Saturday night say, come on guys, let’s do a Jeddah Its one of those things you kind of build off, that stay with you.

We have a lot of quality in our team, We are all good golfers, very, very good ball strikers who don’t necessarily rely on one department of the game or the other and that’s why when you see tournaments on especially difficult courses is where a team like ours comes ahead and kind of dominates because there are not that many loose links or broken links in the chain. But it’s a lot of fun and it’s not easy. You have to be on your A game, you can’t relax.

You also have lesser tournaments . On any other tour, Im playing 26, 28 weeks. Here Im playing exactly half of that so I have half the opportunities to do what I need to do, so you have to be on top of your game, You can’t work your way into form, You can’t have three-four bad events because that’s one-third of your season gone. The pressures are different, the dynamics are different but I’m enjoying all of it.