On a challenging golf course that grudgingly gives up low scores, Anirban Lahiri hopes his four-shot lead entering Sunday’s final round of LIV Golf Andalucía will serve him well as he seeks to end his nine-year victory drought. But he realises no lead is truly safe at Real Club Valderrama.
“It doesn’t really matter on this golf course,” the Crushers GC veteran said. “Every day you have to battle it out … but it is a difficult golf course to catch up.”
Lahiri put himself in position for his first LIV Golf victory with a five-under 66 in Saturday’s second round that included six birdies and no bogeys in his last 13 holes. That leaves the 37-year-old from India at seven under, with Iron Heads GC’s Danny Lee his closest pursuer at three under.
Thanks to Lahiri, captain Bryson DeChambeau’s 67 and Paul Casey’s 69, the league-leading Crushers shot a counting score of 11 under to move atop the team leaderboard at seven under. They have a four-shot advantage over the home favorite Fireballs GC and are seeking a third team trophy this year.
While Lahiri has experienced plenty of team success with the Crushers, the most recent of his 18 individual pro wins came in February 2015 at the Indian Open. Since joining LIV Golf in 2022, he’s had a few close calls, including his debut start 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.”
While Valderrama was not as difficult in the second round as the day before – Saturday’s field stroke average of 71.963 was nearly 2.5 strokes lower than the first round – only about a third of the field managed to break par, with Lahiri and Ripper GC’s Marc Leishman sharing low round honors.
First-round leader Dean Burmester shot a four-over 75 but only dropped into a tie for sixth. Lee maintained solo second with a one-over 72 that included four birdies and five bogeys.
“I can’t complain,” Lee said. “It was a good grind today. It’s playing really tough. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Of the four Spanish players in the field, Fireballs GC’s Eugenio Chacarra is the closest to the lead at two under, tied for third with Cleeks GC captain Martin Kaymer and Legion XIII’s Tyrrell Hatton, the winner in Nashville at LIV Golf’s previous event.
Chacarra opened with a double bogey on the 1st hole and was frustrated with a ruling on the 4th hole. But his approach shot at the 5th hole set up an easy birdie as he battled back to shoot 72.
“I didn’t have my best out there,” said the 24-year-old from Madrid. “But I think I hung in there.”
Fourteen players are within seven shots of the lead, including US Open champ DeChambeau and South Africans Dean Burmester and Louis Oosthuizen, who are tied for sixth.
Burmester led the field after a first-round 66 on Friday, but faded on Saturday with a 75, while Oosthuizen carded 71.
Spanish stars Sergio Garcia, the Fireballs captain, and Jon Rahm, the Legion XIII captain, are in a group at even par that also includes Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann, the current points 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.”
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Lahiri is hoping that his prior close calls will pay dividends in holding off his chasers on Sunday.
“All these experiences help,” he said. “It helped me today, as well, because even when I was ahead, I wasn’t really thinking about it. Just this golf course is perfect, actually, because you have no time to get ahead of yourself. Every shot is life-and-death almost.”
Photo: Angel Martinez/Getty Images