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Australian Open: Anirban Lahiri’s bumpy landing at The Lakes

This must be the game they play in heaven.

India’s Anirban Lahiri punches in an approach shot on the 16th The Lakes Golf Club in the opening round of the Australian Open. Picture: Getty Images
India’s Anirban Lahiri punches in an approach shot on the 16th The Lakes Golf Club in the opening round of the Australian Open. Picture: Getty Images

This must be the game they play in heaven.

The perfumed fairways. The manicured greens. The sweeping natural landscapes. The soothing psssh of Anirban Lahiri’s well-struck ball soaring to the clouds. Beyond the Pearly Gates, I ­imagine there to be an immaculate first tee rather than a rugby pitch. The form of combat is unusually genteel.

Lahiri, Cameron Smith and Brandt Snedeker are the marquee group on the opening morning of the Australian Open. The weather will become inclement enough for later groups to trudge around The Lakes like exhausted mountaineers stumbling towards Everest’s Base Camp, doubled-over against the rain and wind, but right now, at 7.05am, there’s an almost spiritual sense of calm. Early-morning golf sessions always have this. The birdsong. The effortless beauty of these rhythmical swings. The polite applause. The mutual encouragement between competitors. Shot, mate. Thanks.

No death stares. No sledging. Smith isn’t dropping the shoulder into Snedeker and pouncing on the loose ball. Lahiri isn’t luring Smith into nicking one to the cordon. They’re taking on the course and palpably, they’re doing it ­together. In few other sports is it possible to love thy neighbour to this extent.

Off they go. The Lakes is a quirky little joint. Short par-fours and fives. Tempting water carries. The cricketing-loving, Bangalore-based Lahiri has a decision to make. Push the ones and twos, or have a slog? He has a tonk. Smith and Snedeker have million-dollar swings. Barely a muscle out of place from stance to follow-through. Lahiri is a more mercurial beast.

The exaggerated wrist movements of VVS Laxman whipping a boundary off his pads. Drives over the sightscreen. He’s attacking pins like he’s in the final over of a T20. His driver may or may not have a double-scoop and Gray Nichols sticker. When he duffs a chip like he’s chopped one on to his stumps, he recovers by slam-dunking another lob wedge. He leads the group for excitement, and scoring, until a dispiriting double bogey on the last. He signs for a one-over-par 73, tying Snedeker. He pips Smith by a shot.

The 31-year-old Lahiri is representing India at next week’s World Cup of Golf in Melbourne. Which gives him the chance to watch the T20 international between Australia and India at the MCG next Friday night. He’s licking his lips at the prospect of this summer’s four-Test series as feverishly as his 1.2 billion countrymen.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to change our record in Australia,” he says of India’s Test team. “We’ve been playing well and it hasn’t been the most golden of cricket phases for Australia.

“It gives us an opportunity to win our first Test series in a long time here. That’s the main thing. It’s about the Tests.

“As a kid at school watching cricket, I still remember the multiple series when the Waugh brothers came. It was always Shane Warne against Sachin Tendulkar. We all know who won that battle. But then we’ve come here and we’ve been smelling the leather for the last 20 years.”

Asked where golf presently sits in India’s sporting sphere, Lahiri says: “I mean, it’s not cricket. But let’s not even call cricket a sport, because it isn’t. Not in India. As far as non-mainstream, non-cricket sports are concerned, golf is getting more popular. More people are paying attention. More people are playing the sport. But it’s going to need something major for it to really take off. Maybe if I can get a win on the USPGA Tour …”

Lahiri has knocked the wing off a small replica plane that promotes a tournament sponsor on the tees. He’s done a decent job of putting it back together with Snedeker during a frenetic round of five birdies that has been among the leading pack until he’s lost his off stump going up the last.

“Well, not really,” he’s said about giving the tee marker a whack. “I didn’t even hit that. Sometimes you take your anger out and you feel embarrassed later but this was embarrassing. I was going to have a one-under finish.

“I’d teed up close to the left A-380 and the right wing didn’t survive. But I think we managed to put it all back together … I should definitely have come in with red numbers today. I’m disappointed with my finish. It wasn’t clinical. You can’t have your mind wander in these conditions. That happened and I paid the price.”

He’s signed his card. He’s going to be half a dozen shots off the pace. He’s asked the biggest question of all. What do you think about the ball-tampering scandal?

“I’d rather not talk about it,” he says.

Will Swanton
Will SwantonSport Reporter

Will Swanton is a sportswriter who’s won Walkley, Kennedy, Sport Australia and News Awards. He’s won the Melbourne Press Club’s Harry Gordon Award for Australian Sports Journalist of the Year.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/golf/australian-open-anirban-lahiris-bumpy-landing-at-the-lakes/news-story/c51862b0d6e82c643ef5d31c2e28c604