Anirban Lahiri enjoys solid finish at Texas Open

Anirban Lahiri enjoys solid finish at Texas Open

India's Anirban Lahiri enjoyed his first top-5 on the PGA Tour in nearly four years following a solo-fifth finish at the Valero Texas Open.

The 33-year-old closed his week on Sunday with a 3-under 69 which includes four birdies against a bogey to finish fifth at -10 under 278, 8 shots behind winner Jordan Spieth.

Lahiri’s last top-five finish on the PGA Tour came at the CJ Cup in October 2017, where he had finished T-5th.

The Bengalurean with this solid finish equals Arjun Atwal’s record of most (5) PGA Tour Top-5 finishes as Indians.

“I didn’t quite get into the hunt there was too much separation between the leader group and the rest of us. I think overall through the week, I didn’t convert as many of my opportunities. I hit the ball good enough to contend and maybe win but my bunker play and my short game, and putting from mid-range to short-range was below par,” said Lahiri.

“Those are the things I need to work on. I’ve put a lot of work in the full swing and ball striking in the last month or so, and to see that working and holding up under pressure is pleasing. Overall, it was a great week. I’m very happy with how I kept my composure and kind of stuck to what I needed to do. It was one of those weeks that I could have done a lot more but I’d rather build on this and work on some of the areas where I came up short on.”

Lahiri did not have the best of starts this week, going 1-under through his opening round on Thursday before fighting back for a 3-under 69 on Friday. He followed it up with another 69 on Saturday, which gave him the much-needed confidence for the final challenge on Sunday.

With this finish, Anirban now climbed to somewhere around 320 in the OWGR, which should make him the second-highest ranked Indian in the world behind Udayan Mane. He also earned 110 FedEx points, which will help him stay in the top 125 in order to compete in the Northern Trust in August.