San Francisco (US), Apr 30: Anirban Lahiri indicated he is ready to make his presence felt at the highest levels, as he made a sensational debut at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play, beating higher-ranked Ryan Palmer of the US comprehensively for a 4&2 win in Group 6.
Lahiri, ranked No. 35 in the world, a seven-time winner on Asian Tour and twice on European Tour, started and closed well and had six birdies against no bogeys in his 16 holes to bolster his matchplay credentials.
"I played really good," said Lahiri. "It was a really solid round. I don't think Ryan played poorly, either, I think it was a really good match. It was massive for me to birdie 13, and then chip in on 14 to keep myself three ahead."
The other two players in the Group are Justin Rose, Masters runner-up and winner of the PGA Tour event in New Orleans, and World No. 60, Marc Leishman. Interestingly, Leishman stunned Rose 2&1 to throw the group wide open.
As per the new format the 64 players have been divided into 16 groups of four each. Each players plays the other three and the winner of the group proceeds to Last 16.
Lahiri was happy with the fact that he did not bogey.
"I'm pretty happy I didn't make a bogey today: that's a pretty good sign for me and putting better, feeling good."
Talking of Match Play, Lahiri added, "I think I do pretty well in match play. I was just talking to my caddie about it and there's no letting up. You have to kind of be in the zone right through. And you can't have a plateau in your focus, you've got to be really intense. And I think I like playing golf that way. So hopefully I can keep that up."
Lahiri, who has won twice in co-sanctioned events in Maybank Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open, won the first hole with a birdie on the Par-5 and increased his lead with another birdie on fourth.
Palmer took the fifth and eighth with birdies to restore parity. In between both birdied the sixth to have the hole. Then Lahiri won the ninth and as Palmer bogeyed the 10th to Lahiri's par, the gap was again two.
A superb tee shot on Par-3 to five feet saw him pick another birdie and won the hole to go three-up with five to play. Lahiri birdied the 13th from five feet and 14th after chipping in. But on 14th Palmer also birdied to halve the hole. The 15th was halved again with pars.
Then on 16th Palmer conceded as Lahiri sat on a seven-foot birdie and he himself had missed a 13-foot birdie putt. Even a halved hole would not have taken the match further.
Against Rose, Leishman, whose wife’s lie-threatening infections forced him to miss the Masters, birdied the par-5 first and didn't look back. He never gave up the lead as he made four birdies on the round. He is returning after missing out for a month.
Leishman said, "Probably the difference is I holed the putts that kept the momentum on my side and Rosie probably didn't make the putts that could have switched it."
World Number One Rory McIlroy led The European Tour charge with a convincing 5&4 victory over Jason Dufner. The Northern Irishman didn’t need to bring his best golf to the first of his three round one matches in the newly formatted event, with a single birdie and 13 pars good enough to secure a stress free victory.
Englishman Lee Westwood beat Matt Every one-up, while Francesco Molinari pulled off a brilliant 5&4 win over World Number Nine Adam Scott.
Sergio Garcia and Jamie Donaldson emerged one up winners in their respective European battles with Tommy Fleetwood and Bernd Weisberger, while Louis Oosthuizen was in great form to take down Keegan Bradley 6&5.
English Ryder Cup star, Ian Poulter, like Justin Rose, lost 3&2 to Webb Simpson. Danny Willet and Marc Warren produced strong debut performances by defeating Ryan Moore and JB Holmes.
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