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Ponte Vedra Seaside, Florida: India’s Anirban Lahiri got here agonizingly near a maiden PGA TOUR victory when he completed solo second to Cameron Smith of Australia at THE PLAYERS Championship following a pulsating Monday end.
Lahiri grabbed a one-shot lead into the ultimate spherical at TPC Sawgrass within the PGA TOUR’s flagship US$20 million match however a closing 3-under 69 noticed him end one shy of Smith, who secured his fifth profession victory and second of the season with an excellent 66 and a profitable whole of 13-under 275.
It was the 34-year-old’s second profession runner-up end following the 2017 Memorial Match and pushed him as much as forty fifth place on the FedExCup after choosing up 330 factors. Lahiri additionally earned a staggering US$2.18 million in prize cash, his profession finest.
“I wish to win. I have been right here seven years; have not gotten over the road but. That is positively a monkey I wish to get off my again. In the present day was pretty much as good a possibility as any,” mentioned a disillusioned Lahiri, who was bidding to turn into the second Indian after Arjun Atwal to win on the PGA TOUR.
Smith was excellent all day with 10 birdies in opposition to three bogeys by way of 17 holes however opened the door with what turned out to be a profitable bogey after discovering water on the 18th gap together with his second shot. After making a double bogey on the par 3 eighth gap, Lahiri fought again with a 14-foot eagle dialog on 11 and a gutsy 13-foot birdie on the well-known par 3 seventeenth gap to remain within the title body. Needing a birdie on 18 to power a playoff, he blocked his strategy shot to overlook the inexperienced after which left his chip in need of the flag to power further time.
“I assume at one level on 16, I assumed it was type of out of attain, however then once more, birdieing 17, Cam type of opened the door. I gave it a superb go. Made some errors that I might have prevented, however that is golf. I picked up a number of shot too, so I am joyful. This can be a actually optimistic week for me going ahead,” mentioned Lahiri.
“I hit such a superb drive (on 18). The ball was above my toes, which is sort of a hook or a draw lie. It was fairly easy actually and I simply wanted to face just about the place my ball ended up, stand there and simply make a swing and let the slope and the wind do the job for me. Like a number of different issues at the moment, I did not flip by way of it, and I type of hung it out a bit of bit and it did not come again. That was disappointing, as a result of I could not have put myself in a greater place to really.”
Though his last strategy shot failed to seek out the inexperienced, one space of enchancment which Lahiri was extraordinarily happy about was his iron play, which noticed him ranked thirteenth in Strokes Gained: Strategy the Inexperienced at THE PLAYERS. “I am simply relieved. I’ve gone by way of two years of enjoying horrible. The final time I contended in a subject this good was at Memorial possibly, 5 years in the past, and even that was a back-door second. I shot 7-under on Sunday. It has been a very long time since I have been on this place in a top quality subject like this,” he mentioned.
“It is large, as a result of while you undergo such a lean interval for such a very long time, you begin asking your self, man, was {that a} flash within the pan? What are you doing? You have not performed good in so lengthy. Your perception takes successful, so this for me is — I will re-cement the inspiration and work upwards from right here.
“Two weeks in the past, Honda Traditional week, strokes gained off the tee was twenty ninth, across the inexperienced 4th, placing fifteenth, 144th strategy to inexperienced. My solely objective coming in was to alter that, and I did. It was a really profitable week,” added the Indian star, who added 3.5 grams of weight to his irons at the beginning of the week.
Last Leaderboard
Cameron Smith 69-71-69-66—275 (-13)
Anirban Lahiri 67-73-67-69—276 (-12)
Paul Casey 70-69-69-69—277 (-11)
Kevin Kisner 68-74-68-68—278 (-10)
Keegan Bradley 72-71-68-68—279 (-9)
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