‘Ugly’ win delights Lahiri
Anirban Lahiri has admitted he wasn’t sure he’d done enough to win the Malaysian Open and secure his maiden European Tour title.
The Indian fired a four-under 68 in the final round to overturn a five-shot deficit to snatch victory from overnight leader Bernd Wiesberger.
Lahiri hadn’t been in contention until a stunning ten-under third round 62, but the world No 73 was delighted to hold his nerve on the back nine and claim a one-shot victory.
“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” the 27-year old said. “I’ve got a bad habit of making it hard for myself, but I’m happy I got over the line – as ugly as it was towards the end.
“I knew he (Wiesberger) got off to a hot start, but I didn’t know how far back I was until we got to the back nine and my caddie pointed out he’d also dropped a couple of shots.
“I thought then I was in the hunt, but thought I needed to make at least one more birdie to come home.”
A 40-foot birdie putt at the 17th moved the rookie top of the leaderboard, with Wiesberger unable to find a birdie on the last to take the tournament into a play-off.
Victory is set to parachute Lahiri into the world’s top 50, with the Q-school graduate keen cement his position and qualify for invitation to April’s Masters.
“That is definitely one of my targets,” Lahiri added. I’m not sure how far I’ll move up but I’m confident with this win I should have a pretty good chance.
“In hindsight, that (yesterday’s ten-under 62) is now one of the most important rounds of my career. It’s fantastic when you play well at the right time and I’m really glad that it happened.
“The next two weeks I like both venues as well, so I’m looking forward.”
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