Written by: Manvi Singh

Anirban Lahiri has just made it to the headlines as he qualified for Tokyo Olympics making it be his second successive Olympics appearance and while he chose to celebrate, we too chose to celebrate his love for golf and how it all really began. 

Anirban Lahiri at Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

1. Inspiration to Bridge his Childhood to Golf

Lahiri learnt to play golf at the age of eight and with all due credits, found his inspiration in his father Dr Tushar Lahiri for teaching him the basics of the game. As a physician in the Indian Army, Dr Lahiri always found his inclination towards the sport. With his newbie self born in Pune, Maharashtra; he currently is settled in Florida, United States.


2. Attitude Towards Golf

Ever since Anirban started off his luck on the competitive tournament ground, his 12-year-old self, up until now has lived by the words of his father. He always wanted him to hold a perspective of enjoying the game than to seek a win in it. He always wanted his son to enjoy himself and consider it to be an opportunity to at the least, live with the admiration of the magnificent golf courses.

Anirban for the win at Maybank Malaysian Open. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)

3. The Multi-Cultural Wonder

Being a friend from the army, Anirban has always experienced the best of all worlds. With his father posting cities along with his Bengali roots, he always loved the culture he was brought up in. On the contrary, though, he holds a die-hard love for Punjabi food even after spending a decade in Bangalore.

4. The Taste of Champion

With opening his arms wide to the game with two National Amateur Champions for 2006 and 2007, he has bagged the Asian Games silver medal, along with a total of 18 professional wins up till now like Hero Indian Open (2015), SAIL-SBI Open (2012-13), Maybank Malaysian Open (2014) and Venetian Macau Open (2014) to name a few which made two European Tour wins and seven Asian Tour wins. 

 

5. The Record Breaker

Being the third Indian for the Masters after Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal, he also happens to be the first Indian with the highest finish, scoring 70-67-70-68, to obtain a score of −13 at the PGA Championship 2015. Additionally, honoured as the first Indian with the feature in the President’s Cup, he has held onto the stake of becoming the first Indian to shoot sub-par scores in all four rounds in a major, the best relative to par at a major by an Indian and the best round by an Indian at any major. 

Anirban at the Turkish Airlines Open 2016 

The laurels of Lahiri have never grown to be less surprising for his audience, but the stated changed strategy for Tokyo Olympics is something everybody looks forward to.