Press Trust of India
New Delhi, July 27: It was a great week for Anirban Lahiri as he returned to the top 50 in world rankings, besides regaining his top 10 place in the Race to Dubai list of European Tour and also extending his lead on Asian Tour Merit list by over half a million dollars.
Lahiri returned to top 50 after being edged out three weeks ago. The Bangalore golfer, who finished outright fifth at the Omega European Masters which concluded Sunday, earned 7.68 points and that carried his total points to an average of 2.4360 and to 50th place. It was a jump of 11 places from where he was after the British Open last week.
Lahiri registered his first top five finish since February and picked up $1,23,956 to take his season’s earnings to $9,25,484 on Asian Tour and went past the million Euro mark in Europe and is placed ninth.
Lahiri also extended his lead on the Asian Tour Money to more than half a million dollars. If Lahiri, who was third and second in the past two seasons, stays on top of the Merit list at the end of the season, he will become the fourth Indian after Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun Atwal (2003) and Jeev Milkha Singh (2006 and 2008) to become Asia’s No. 1.
“I’m going to play in at least four to five events on the Asian Tour towards the end of the year. Hopefully I can keep playing well and it’ll be nice to finally get over the line. I finished third in 2013 and second last year. So winning the Order of Merit would be nice,” Lahiri said.
Lahiri was delighted to hit top form in Switzerland. “I’m happy to be playing well again. I had a very good start to the year. But I lost touch after that. I feel like my form is coming back. It’s an important time of the year and hopefully I can keep it going,” Lahiri said.