Anirban Lahiri reflects on his impressive 7-under round and shares how playing alongside stars like Joaquín Niemann reminded him to “play like a kid again.” In this press conference, Lahiri talks candidly about his mindset heading into the final round and the lessons learned from past close calls. Graeme McDowell also joins the session, discussing his journey to regain form on LIV Golf, the impact of team dynamics with Smash GC, and what it means to finally have a shot at contention.
from Crushers GC An Honor Lihiri and from Smash GC Grant McDow Bonaw 7 under 64 uh you’ve got the uh 36 hole lead you had seven birdies today but I think those two pars at the end were pretty spectacular can you just talk about it yeah that those felt like birdies as well i think Yeah I think the first 15 holes was about as solid as I could have played um I missed a few putts and I still made quite a lot of birdies and then 16 I was trying to hit like a in between nine iron and I tried to compress it a little bit too much and yeah uh everyone else saw what happened but that was really nice to make that putt you know golf’s a really funny game you look back to a month ago I hit one of the best shots of the year hit the flag and make double and I stand on 16 and you know I hit a shank i’ll say it out loud and I still make par you know that’s Don’t say that it’s I well I’m just saying and then yeah 18 was nice you know that was a loose shot but yeah going looking forward to tomorrow I’m just happy with where my game’s at um just more of the same I think it’s going to rain overnight so just focus on you know finding fairways and giving myself looks so Gmac obviously you’re tied for second marty’s up there too uh Phil’s in the mix so did the 2010 major winners just kind of get together and decide you were gonna make some noise this week yeah it’s uh I mean as always here on Liv it’s a great leaderboard um you know I’m excited to be up there i’m excited to get myself you know probably my first opportunity on Liv you know I’ve underachieved greatly so far in my career out here um you know certainly expect more of myself and opportunities like this are are kind of you know where what I’ve been working towards and kind of what I feel still inside of me and uh you know looking forward to being out there tomorrow and and try and put myself in position try to see if we can get to this guy beside me here um but like I say I’m I’m excited to be kind of where I want to be um you know I haven’t really given myself any opportunities on this tour yet so um it’s a great golf course like Ban said you know a bit of rain overnight maybe in the morning greens were certainly a lot softer this uh today and I’d imagine it’ll be pretty soft again tomorrow but certainly offers up a lot of chances uh if you can keep it in play and and and attack with the irons sabon you’ve celebrated seven team titles as a member of the Crushers i know you love your teammates i suspect you’d like to to celebrate an individual title tomorrow oh yeah i mean I’m pretty sure I haven’t felt it but I’m pretty sure the best feelings to have both those trophies i’ve been really really close a number of occasions so you know I’m not going out there to prove anything to anyone i just want to go out there and just play freely play like a kid it was fun playing today with John and and Waen uh especially Waen you know he still plays like a kid and I was just watching him go about his business and it’s uh it’s so much fun like that it was it was great inspiration just even playing with them saying you know they’re just enjoying themselves out there and and I want to do more of that tomorrow and Gmac obviously you the two teams up there you’re going to be battling against each other you want that individual success but also you’ve enjoyed some team success too with Smash yeah I mean the the team element is what’s special about Liv um you know there’s more than just yourself out there tomorrow you’re playing for you’re playing for something more than that and and and it brings that a little bit added pressure as well you know so uh it’s great you know I mean obviously when you’re up the top of the leaderboard you’ve got a lot to take care of individually um the great thing about Liv is it doesn’t really matter where you’re at on a Sunday if your team’s playing well you know you’re grinding you’re digging you’re trying to do the best you can so uh yeah it goes without saying we’ll be we’ll be in grind mode out there tomorrow and trying to do the best we can and and hopefully the team stuff will take care of itself all right we’ll open it up for uh questions for uh Bon and GMC matt over here to the left bon you referenced being closed on a number of occasions uh over the last few seasons twice you lost in playoffs what What have you learned in those near win experiences that you could use tomorrow i I think I’ve been guilty of playing a bit defensively uh especially when I’ve gotten close and I think tomorrow this with this golf course being the way it is I think it’s a great opportunity uh because you cannot be defensive you know you have to go and attack and and make as many birdies as you can so I think that’s the one big learning for me is that you know whether if I’m three ahead or or two back I’m still going to try and you know birdie every hole that I can because it’s going to give you that opportunity all right question to the right hey Robban uh number 11 kind of seemed like a intersection of the trajectories between you and Waco he comes in there with the lead goes into the front of the hole takes the penalty you’re one of the few people you stuck it within 10 ft and put a birdie putt and took the lead and kind of never looked back from there did Did that feel like a momentum shift as you were going through it uh I think uh 9 10 11 played really tricky because just the wind around that corner was not what it was for the first nine holes uh so you know you saw a lot of people misjudge yardages in that stretch uh I think uh all credit for that hole goes to Tim my caddyy cuz it was right between eight and seven and he said look you know you got room just commit to it i made a good swing uh I got a good look from John’s part as well um and again you know I’m just trying to play my game you know I’m playing with two of the best golfers in the world they’re going to get me by 30 yards on most T-shots i just keep my blinkers on uh I stick to my guns and I do what I need to do so I wasn’t really thinking about what Waco was doing or John’s doing this field is so good that you know you blink and you look up and someone’s 9 under power it’s happened plenty of times so you know the best thing I can do is just uh you know keep my blinkers on and stick to what I need to do all right question over here to the left gmac I wanted to talk to you a little bit about what you’ve done to uh to resurrect your career in terms of the physical work you’ve put into it probably the mental work involved has there been something that really has stood out in and getting you back to where you are right now um you know I think there’s a lot of things I uh you know I think I struggled the first couple of seasons out here just just maybe with a lack of golf you know I think uh when you’re used to playing 25 30 weeks a year you know you might play a run of three weeks in a row the first week might be a burner week uh as you get ready for maybe two other events there’s just there’s just no burner weeks on live you know every week’s huge right so it’s taken me a little bit of time to kind of work out how to prep myself with less golf um and I think being part of Smash I think you know having a guy like Brooks you know expecting you know things from you expecting a level of work and a level of effort you know he leads by example he’s such a great player um so I think that little extra bit of uh the little bit of focus that he brings has been huge trusting me to be on this team um and you know I felt my game coming i felt my game coming for the last year or so um been working the last couple months just trying to get rid of a little bit of right left shape on the ball try and try and straighten my flight out a little bit so um yeah just been chipping away you know like I say I expect more of myself than what I’ve achieved on this tour so far and you know tomorrow is my my first real opportunity so you know kind of like Ban said you know this leaderboard the way it is there there’s no room for any defensive golf tomorrow you got to go you got to play you got to make birdies and uh you know I’m looking forward to the opportunity all right any more questions all right appreciate the time thank you
1 Comment
Playing like a kid, of course, playing on simple easy golf courses.