Special Report: The Presidents Cup
Anirban Lahiri is among the five Asian-born pros set to tee up for the International squad at the Presidents Cup.
By JEFF SHAIN
October 7, 2015
One is a 45-year-old former paratrooper from Thailand who took up golf by fastening the discarded head of a 5-iron to a bamboo stick. The other followed a more conventional path in the sport, although as recently as 15 months ago, he still believed that the game’s biggest events were out of reach for a golfer like him from India.
This week, the winding roads of Thongchai Jaidee and Anirban Lahiri converge at the Presidents Cup, a meeting that could not be more timely.
As the biennial golf team event comes to Asian soil for the first time, Thongchai and Lahiri are among five Asian-born pros set to tee up for the International squad, illustrating the broadening of the game’s horizons on the continent.
“It means a great deal, and not just to me,” said Lahiri, 28. “It means a great deal to the people in Asia, to the people back home in India.”
He added that “to be part of something historic like that is extremely special.”
The Asian contingent also features Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, 23, and Bae Sang-moon of South Korea, 29, as well as Danny Lee, 25, who is a New Zealander but who was born in Incheon before his family emigrated when he was 11.
“There’s a positive trend in this,” Thongchai told an Asian Tour liaison, “and it’ll be upward from now onwards. With these great young golfers coming up, it’ll be really an exciting time for the region.”
In the Presidents Cup’s 20-year history, only once before has the International Team featured more than two Asians. That was four years ago, when Ryo Ishikawa of Japan was joined by the South Koreans K.J. Choi, Y.E. Yang and K.T. Kim at Royal Melbourne in Australia.
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This time, four Asian nations are represented, and two of them — India and Thailand — are new to the competition.
“Their presence in a prestigious team event will boost the development of the game in India, Thailand and across Asia,” Kyi Hla Han, the Asian Tour chairman, said in a statement. “Young golfers will now have another reason to aspire for the top. And with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama also in the International Team, it proves that Asian golf has grown in stature and strength.”
Previous International Teams have been dominated by Australians or South Africans, including such major champions as Greg Norman, Ernie Els, Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen. Yang became Asia’s first major champion in 2009, winning the P.G.A. Championship, and the growth has continued.
According to The R&A, which administers the game globally, Asia was home to 4,778 golf courses at the end of 2014. That represents 14 percent of all courses worldwide. With 92 more under construction and 115 in the planning stages, Asia will have nearly a third of the new business.
Although nothing dislodges cricket from India’s sports headlines, Lahiri said his fifth-place finish at the P.G.A. Championship drew “a lot of splash in the newspapers.”
“I met so many people in the three weeks that I was home who would come up to me and say, ‘You’ve just inspired a whole new generation of kids to aspire to be more than just Asian Tour players or European Tour players,”’ Lahari said. “It’s a very humbling and satisfying feeling.”
Other Indian golfers have achieved moderate success, most notably Jeev Milkha Singh, who counts four European Tour victories and six on the Asian Tour among 20 victories worldwide. Arjun Atwal became the first Indian to win a P.G.A. Tour event when he captured the 2011 Wyndham Championship after making the field via qualifying.
Daniel Chopra, born in Sweden but raised in India, his father’s homeland, since age 7, won twice on the P.G.A. Tour.
“They gave me a lot of advice and a lot of encouragement to actually aspire to be here,” Lahiri said.
So did a chance meeting last year with the International captain, Nick Price, who approached him on the practice range at an Asian Tour event in Fiji.
“He walked up to me and said that he’d been watching how I’d been playing in Asia,” Lahiri recalled, “and he was hoping I’d kick on and push toward the top 10” among qualifiers.
Lahiri has won three times since then, working his way into the top 50 of the world rankings in February.
Thongchai is a seven-time winner on the European Tour, and won the European Open last month in Germany. His worldwide total now stands at 20, in a career that didn’t begin until he was 30.
“What can you say? He’s a fighter,” Price said, noting that Thongchai will serve as something of an elder statesman even before hitting a Presidents Cup shot. “He’s got a huge heart and I think he’s going to be a wonderful addition.”
Thongchai has experience in team match play. At the inaugural EurAsia Cup in Malaysia last year, he was playing captain as Team Asia achieved a 10-10 tie with Europe and he beat the 2010 United States Open hero Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland in singles.
“I can be a mentor to the younger players,” Thongchai said. “My experience can help them in planning our strategies.”
Matsuyama is the highest-ranked Asian on the squad, currently No.14 in the world after spending the past year in the top 20. “He’s played exceptionally well all year, very consistently,” Price said.
Bae, meanwhile, was an intriguing captain’s selection as he prepares to step away from the game after the Presidents Cup to serve his mandatory two-year military service in South Korea.
The 29-year-old pro won twice at the end of last year, including the Frys.com Open in California, but saw his performance suffer as his appeal to bypass military service made its way through his country’s courts. In recent weeks, though, he produced two top-20 finishes in the FedExCup playoffs.
“I think he’s had a really tough time,” Price said. “His military service has been a cause for concern, and it hasn’t allowed him to play his best. But I think” once the courts made the decision, “he’s played a lot better.”