Hot putter and a cool head gives Lahiri four-stroke lead at Valderrama
Having flirted with victory twice in the last two years, Anirban Lahiri will be hoping to make it third time lucky at LIV Golf Andalucia as he takes a four-shot lead into the final day at Real Club Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain.
- Jul 14, 2024,
- Updated Jul 14, 2024 3:28 PM IST
Anirban Lahiri locked on to the Moving Day spirit with a controlled display to open a four shot lead on the field after two days of competition at LIV Golf Andalucia in Sotogrande, Spain, on Saturday. The Indian star will also hope to end a long wait for his 19th professional win having been twice denied since joining the LIV ranks two years ago.
It promises to be no easy task on the challenging Real Club Valderrama golf course that has so far only allowed 10 sub-par totals over two completed rounds and Lahiri tops the leaderboard on 7 under par 132 entering Sunday’s final round on the back of a near-flawless 5 under 66, four shots ahead of his nearest pursuer.
Lahiri however also knows no lead is truly safe at Valderrama as he watched day one leader Dean Burmester surrender his four-shot advantage with seven bogeys on Saturday that left the South African six shots behind the leader. “It doesn’t really matter on this golf course,” Lahiri said. “Every day you have to battle it out … and it is a difficult golf course to catch up.”
Lahiri, 37, put himself in position for his first LIV Golf victory, his 66 also contributing heavily to his league-leading Crushers GC team, who also hold a four-shot lead over the rest and in pursuit of their third win of the season with a 36-hole 11 under par total. His round included six birdies against one early bogey Iron Heads GC’s Danny Lee was next best on 3 under while Fireballs GC led by Sergio Garcia were second on the team leaderboard four strokes behind the Crushers.
While Lahiri has had team success with the Crushers, the last of his 18 individual pro wins came in February 2015 at the Hero Indian Open. Since joining LIV Golf, he has been close twice, including on debut in Boston when he was part of a three-man playoff won by Dustin Johnson. Last year, he had three podium finishes, including a runner-up to DeChambeau in Chicago.
“The win would mean a lot,” said Lahiri, whose family arrived in town and will be cheering him on Sunday. “I’ve been chasing it for a while. All those (near-miss) experiences help. They helped me today, as well, because even when I was ahead, I wasn't really thinking about it. On this golf course you have no time to get ahead of yourself. Every shot is life-and-death almost.”
On Saturday, he needed the putter to get out of trouble on more than one occasion including a closing par putt from over 20 feet after his approach stopped well short of the cup.
Before that, he holed two even longer putts after some poor chipping, on hole 11 for birdie (45 feet) and then on 12 for par (26 feet). “It bailed me out big time today,” Lahiri said of his putter. “Didn't help to chip like a 15 handicap.
“Valderrama makes you look like that. It's so hard to chip out here, whether you're on the fairways or the roughs. It takes a lot of skill. In fact, I need to go and hit some chips now.”
While the course was not as difficult in the second round as on the opening day – Saturday’s stroke average of 71.963 was nearly 2-1/2 strokes lower than the first round – only 14 from a field of 54 have managed par or better scores with Lahiri and Ripper GC’s Marc Leishman sharing the day’s best of score 66.
Of the four Spaniards in the field, Fireballs GC’s Eugenio Chacarra was on 2 under, tied for third place with Cleeks GC captain Martin Kaymer of Germany and Legion XIII’s Tyrrell Hatton, the runaway winner at LIV Golf Nashville last month.
Fourteen players were within seven shots of the lead, including US Open champion DeChambeau and 2024 two-time senior major winner Richard Blandin tied sixth place. DeChambeau would want to see his team win a third title this season and extend their current lead and is also chasing teammate Lahiri for the individual title. In 2023, DeChambeau finished second to Talor Gooch, who needed a birdie on the final hole to win.
Conditions are tougher this year, but DeChambeau’s 4 under 67 on Saturday effectively did the same thing as his run in 2023. It was a round that included a slam-dunk hole-out from 98 yards for eagle at the par-4 14th, along with finding the water on holes 17 and 4 where he still managed pars.
“I'm going to try my best to accomplish a win out here,” said DeChambeau. “I was close last year and want to get that job done, but if Baan does, it will be the coolest thing and we'll celebrate appropriately for him.”
“Golf is golf,” said DeChambeau, who had never had a slam-dunk hole-out until Saturday. “You're going to have weird stuff happen to you.”
Spaniards Garcia and Jon Rahm, the Legion XIII captain, were on level par in a bunch that also included Torque GC captain Joaquin Niemann, the current individual season-long leader.
“I don't think you ever should be comfortable on this golf course with any lead, to be honest,” said Rahm. “It's that difficult and it's that precise, and when you're chasing, you almost have the freedom to be aggressive because you have nothing to lose.”
Stat pack Driving accuracy: Louis Oosthuizen, 78.57% (11 of 14 fairways hit) Driving distance: Peter Uihlein, 352.0 yards avg. Longest drive: Peter Uihlein, 384.8 yards, 17th hole Greens in regulation: Henrik Stenson, 83.33% (15 of 18 greens) Scrambling: Anirban Lahiri (7 of 8), 87.50% Putting: Anirban Lahiri, 1.28 putts per hole Bogey-free rounds: none
Anirban Lahiri locked on to the Moving Day spirit with a controlled display to open a four shot lead on the field after two days of competition at LIV Golf Andalucia in Sotogrande, Spain, on Saturday. The Indian star will also hope to end a long wait for his 19th professional win having been twice denied since joining the LIV ranks two years ago.
It promises to be no easy task on the challenging Real Club Valderrama golf course that has so far only allowed 10 sub-par totals over two completed rounds and Lahiri tops the leaderboard on 7 under par 132 entering Sunday’s final round on the back of a near-flawless 5 under 66, four shots ahead of his nearest pursuer.
Lahiri however also knows no lead is truly safe at Valderrama as he watched day one leader Dean Burmester surrender his four-shot advantage with seven bogeys on Saturday that left the South African six shots behind the leader. “It doesn’t really matter on this golf course,” Lahiri said. “Every day you have to battle it out … and it is a difficult golf course to catch up.”
Lahiri, 37, put himself in position for his first LIV Golf victory, his 66 also contributing heavily to his league-leading Crushers GC team, who also hold a four-shot lead over the rest and in pursuit of their third win of the season with a 36-hole 11 under par total. His round included six birdies against one early bogey Iron Heads GC’s Danny Lee was next best on 3 under while Fireballs GC led by Sergio Garcia were second on the team leaderboard four strokes behind the Crushers.
While Lahiri has had team success with the Crushers, the last of his 18 individual pro wins came in February 2015 at the Hero Indian Open. Since joining LIV Golf, he has been close twice, including on debut in Boston when he was part of a three-man playoff won by Dustin Johnson. Last year, he had three podium finishes, including a runner-up to DeChambeau in Chicago.
“The win would mean a lot,” said Lahiri, whose family arrived in town and will be cheering him on Sunday. “I’ve been chasing it for a while. All those (near-miss) experiences help. They helped me today, as well, because even when I was ahead, I wasn't really thinking about it. On this golf course you have no time to get ahead of yourself. Every shot is life-and-death almost.”
On Saturday, he needed the putter to get out of trouble on more than one occasion including a closing par putt from over 20 feet after his approach stopped well short of the cup.
Before that, he holed two even longer putts after some poor chipping, on hole 11 for birdie (45 feet) and then on 12 for par (26 feet). “It bailed me out big time today,” Lahiri said of his putter. “Didn't help to chip like a 15 handicap.
“Valderrama makes you look like that. It's so hard to chip out here, whether you're on the fairways or the roughs. It takes a lot of skill. In fact, I need to go and hit some chips now.”
While the course was not as difficult in the second round as on the opening day – Saturday’s stroke average of 71.963 was nearly 2-1/2 strokes lower than the first round – only 14 from a field of 54 have managed par or better scores with Lahiri and Ripper GC’s Marc Leishman sharing the day’s best of score 66.
Of the four Spaniards in the field, Fireballs GC’s Eugenio Chacarra was on 2 under, tied for third place with Cleeks GC captain Martin Kaymer of Germany and Legion XIII’s Tyrrell Hatton, the runaway winner at LIV Golf Nashville last month.
Fourteen players were within seven shots of the lead, including US Open champion DeChambeau and 2024 two-time senior major winner Richard Blandin tied sixth place. DeChambeau would want to see his team win a third title this season and extend their current lead and is also chasing teammate Lahiri for the individual title. In 2023, DeChambeau finished second to Talor Gooch, who needed a birdie on the final hole to win.
Conditions are tougher this year, but DeChambeau’s 4 under 67 on Saturday effectively did the same thing as his run in 2023. It was a round that included a slam-dunk hole-out from 98 yards for eagle at the par-4 14th, along with finding the water on holes 17 and 4 where he still managed pars.
“I'm going to try my best to accomplish a win out here,” said DeChambeau. “I was close last year and want to get that job done, but if Baan does, it will be the coolest thing and we'll celebrate appropriately for him.”
“Golf is golf,” said DeChambeau, who had never had a slam-dunk hole-out until Saturday. “You're going to have weird stuff happen to you.”
Spaniards Garcia and Jon Rahm, the Legion XIII captain, were on level par in a bunch that also included Torque GC captain Joaquin Niemann, the current individual season-long leader.
“I don't think you ever should be comfortable on this golf course with any lead, to be honest,” said Rahm. “It's that difficult and it's that precise, and when you're chasing, you almost have the freedom to be aggressive because you have nothing to lose.”
Stat pack Driving accuracy: Louis Oosthuizen, 78.57% (11 of 14 fairways hit) Driving distance: Peter Uihlein, 352.0 yards avg. Longest drive: Peter Uihlein, 384.8 yards, 17th hole Greens in regulation: Henrik Stenson, 83.33% (15 of 18 greens) Scrambling: Anirban Lahiri (7 of 8), 87.50% Putting: Anirban Lahiri, 1.28 putts per hole Bogey-free rounds: none