Player To Watch Files: Anirban Lahiri Makes U.S. Debut

Thanks to reader Tim for Karen Crouse's NY Times story profiling India's Anirban Lahiri, now ranked 35th in the world after four wins in the last 11 months. (Lahiri starts the WGC Cadillac at 12:39 ET).

Crouse writes:

India has fewer golf courses than South Florida does, and many of them, Lahiri said, were built for the Army. Because his father is a military doctor, Lahiri had access to courses that otherwise would have been off limits to him.

“I think one of the issues in India, there’s not as many courses as America; it’s not as public a sport,” Lahiri said. “And yeah, a lot of the credit for my exposure to the game goes not just to my dad but also to the armed forces.”
Lahiri was drawn to the game because it was a chance to spend time with his father, Dr. Tushar Lahiri, a recreational player.

“I would just go out there and I would go pick up golf balls for him, and we would go chip, putt for 15 minutes because it was getting dark,” Lahiri said. “That’s how it all started.”

When he took up the game, he was 8 years old. He had the impression that no other children played the sport.

“I was the only person on the golf course who was under the age of 30,” Lahiri said, adding: “Then I played a junior event when I was about 12. That’s the first time I saw kids my age play.”