Lahiri first Indian to join Saudi-backed LIV golf

The grind in the life of a full-time professional golfer on the bigger tours seems to have taken a toll on Anirban Lahiri, who has joined the Greg Norman-fronted LIV Golf Series, a rebel venture that has acquired some of the most prominent names in the game.
The 35-year-old Indian, who finished second behind Australian Cameron Smith (the subsequent Open Champion who has also signed up for the Saudi-backed league) at this year’s Players Championship – the PGA Tour’s flagship event – will make his debut in the $20 million tournament in Boston this week.
Lahiri has said that achieving a better “work-life balance” was the primary concern behind the move, which is likely to bar him from the PGA Tour and the Major Championships, as the upstart initiative attempts to upset the established order in golf. It has taken the PGA Tour to court over the sanctions imposed on players who have joined LIV Golf. It will also leave him ineligible for the Presidents Cup, in which he has represented the International team twice.

Welcome to LIV @anirbangolf 👋#LIVGolf pic.twitter.com/Z7viqmMp30
— LIV Golf (@LIVGolfInv) August 30, 2022
“I see this as an effort to correct my work-life balance. I see this as a move to get back closer to my family and friends. I see this as something that gives me more time to enjoy my kids growing up,” Lahiri explained to Hindustan Times.
Lahiri has 18 professional titles worldwide, but has not been in the winner’s circle since 2015. He hasn’t made it to a Major weekend for the last five years either.
LIV Golf tournaments are 54-hole events (in contrast to the 72-hole competitions on the regular tours). The 48 players in the field are divided into four-man teams for the three-day contests, which provide guaranteed prize money much more than what is on offer on the other tours, where a golfer doesn’t get any prize money if he doesn’t make the halfway cut. LIV Golf events have a shotgun start, as against a staggered one on other tours, and there’s an individual as well as team champion for every tournament.
Other big names
Smith, who won the Open on The Old Course at St. Andrews in July, has reportedly jumped ship for a reported sum of $100 million. Other prominent golfers to have joined LIV Golf – which has been accused of ‘sportswashing’ Saudi Arabia’s allegedly dismal human rights record and the ruling family’s alleged role in the murder of The Washington Post journal Jamal Khashoggi – include Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Henrik Stenson, Louis Oosthuizen, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Abraham Ancer Graeme McDowell and Bubba Watson.
Lahiri is the first Indian to join LIV Golf and it could be an acquisition aimed at exploiting the Asian market as the continental tour looks to raise its profile on the back of the big names on the LIV roster.
According to the HT report, Lahiri will be part of DeChambeau’s team Crushers. “I have found the whole concept of LIV interesting and alluring. They have so many new things on offer, which is nice at a time when golf tournaments needed a bit of a shake-up,” he was quoted as saying.
In recent seasons, Lahiri has been in a constant struggle to maintain his PGA Tour card and had even had to come through the feeder tour to return to the elite level.