The Open News: Anirban Lahiri almost misses chance to feature

Have you ever wondered how it feels like to feature in the British Open? Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri almost missed the opportunity to feature in this year’s competition because he did not at first know he had made it for the tournament!

The New York Times reports that the World Number 85 barely found out that he was playing in the British Open and was therefore forced to reschedule his honeymoon in Madagascar to make it to the championship just in time.

The 27-year old newly-wed cut short his post-nuptial holidays on the Indian Ocean island after only two days when he learned he had made it to the list of ten golfers who had secured places in this year’s major at Royal Liverpool, Hoylake as the top ranked non-exempt player. The tournament kicks off on the 17th and will go on till 20th of July.

But why did Lahiri have this lack of planning, you may ask? The Indian admitted that he did not expect to be considered for this year’s major. He makes a return to the British Open just two years after his first ever appearance in the tournament and had to be notified of his invite only a few days before kick-off.

The golfer says he thought the qualifications cut-off ended sometime in May and on checking and finding only the regular golf categories available on the Open’s website, he assumed that he did not get a chance to participate because he did not feature in the field for any of the events highlighted by the site.

Apparently, Lahiri gets to know who features in the British Open just like the rest of us do by checking on the website… Quite interesting!

The 27-year old says he would have re-scheduled his honeymoon earlier had he known of his qualification to play in Britain, but also adds that his wife has taken everything that has happened in the last few days positively despite the truncation of her honeymoon. He says that being a professional golfer’s wife, she understands that such a thing can happen sometimes and has subsequently been very supportive of him.

Lahiri promised to fly his new wife back to Madagascar once he is through with his international duty.