Dubai: India can have its first golf Major winner within a decade if the country changes its mentality, according to the man who has come closest to winning one of the year’s big four tournaments: Anirban Lahiri.
Lahiri, 29, finished tied for fifth at the 2015 PGA Championship, breaking the record for the highest finish at a Major by an Indian player, which was previously set by Shiv Kapur, who finished ninth at the 2013 British Open.
“Hopefully we can do it within a decade, but we’ve got to change our belief system,” Lahiri told Gulf News on the sidelines of this week’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club which tees off on Thursday.
“I don’t agree with the theory that you have to play in the US to be successful there, at least collegiately.
“The whole idea is to have a quality of game that’s good enough to compete, and I believe that you can do that anywhere given the right structure, support and guidance. It’s not geographically dependent.
“If you look at the number of South Americans that have won Majors and contended in the US, with multiple tournament wins, like Angel Cabrera, Camilo Villegas, Fabian Gomez and Emiliano Grillo; South America has got a similar infrastructure to India, and that’s something we can take and say: ‘Hey, we can do it too’.
“It’s all about believing that you can do it, and I fought that myself for the first five years of my career, where I simply didn’t think I was good enough to compete at the highest level.
“It’s only until I started getting better and until I met fellow Indian players Arjun Atwal and Daniel Chopra — who have played in the US and told me that I was good enough, but just had to believe it — that it clicked.
“I started out on borrowed belief then I kind of turned that into something I believe myself and that’s the one thing we’ve got to change.
“That’s what will change if somebody wins a Major, and if I can do that it would be great.
“That’s my long term goal and that’s the one thing I want to accomplish before hanging my boots up. That’s what I’m working towards but I need to get myself back into the Majors. I’ve dropped out of the Top-50 as a result of not playing consistently in the States, but I’ve been in the game long enough to know that can change pretty quickly. So, hopefully a good week this week will get me moving in the right direction again,” added Lahiri, who made a breakthrough in 2015 with two wins in Europe only to suffer some adjustment in 2016 after making the leap to play in America.
“I can’t say I’m the frontrunner to become the first Indian to win a Major. I don’t believe in that attitude, I just believe in trying to become a better golfer.
“Finishing tied for fifth in 2015 was important for confidence, but it seems like a lifetime ago now. I need to get back on that train of confidence because that’s what it comes down to, and that’s what I’m hoping to do.”
