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RBC HERITAGE

April 13, 2017

Anirban Lahiri

Hilton Head, South Carolina

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I hit it on 11. I hit it on 12. I hit it on 16, 15, 18, 1, 2, 3, 8 and 5. Quite a bit, actually. I mean for it not being a typically long golf course you still have a few drivers.

Q. Is this a course you need to get a good start?
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I'd like to think so. It's the kind of golf course where you have to take advantage where you can. You're going to get tough days. It's probably going to really firm up. It's not going to rain it's going to bake. And it was a little wet in the morning with the dew, made it a little softer. You could almost feel it beginning to firm up underfoot as we were finishing up. I'd expect more of that by Sunday.

Q. You've got to be happy where you are heading into the next round?
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yeah, absolutely. You want to get off to a solid start. I think I played well to start, still some work to do in some areas. I've been off for three weeks. Also just getting my rhythm back on the golf course. So that feels good, yeah.

Q. What did you do last week, were you watching the Masters?
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I didn't watch Thursday and Friday. It was very hard for me to watch, honestly. I played the last two years. And it was difficult. I tried to drown myself in work Thursday and Friday. But everybody shuts down on the weekend so I watched some golf.

I've been working on my game, particularly on my putting and my short game. I think those two areas have been my weak links, at least in the last two or three months. Today I hit the ball really good. And I've just not done justice to my scoring. So I worked on that. Happy to have made a few putts coming in, even though most of the time I was scrambling. I worked on that, took some time off. Got back to work on my fitness. I had a very grueling travel schedule to start the year, so I needed to take some time off and put my feet up and just recover from that, as well.

Q. Have a good run from here?
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yes, I'm playing this week and next. And then I'll take two weeks off and I play PLAYERS all the way through to Memorial and take it from there.

Q. How much do you think the Presidents Cup or how big is that a goal?
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: It's definitely a big goal. I do think about it. I think over the last three or four weeks I've thought less about it, simply because I need to put a lot of work into my game. And I'm getting closer to my game, let's put it that way. I've hit the ball pretty good, I felt. But like I said, I don't think the rest of my -- the scoring game hasn't been very good. And that's where the focus is.

The Presidents Cup is definitely on my mind and everyone else who can play on that team. But I know that I've kind of slowly petered away from the World Rankings. So for me to get myself to quality I need to at least win once. And if I can't win once, I've got to get into the top three multiple times. That's the only way I'm going to be able to break back into the top-50 or better. It's been disappointing, because the way I've finished events the weekends the haven't been very good. Let's see, hopefully I can keep the momentum going.

Q. Do you know where you are on the points list?
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I'm 20.

Q. You think a win or a couple of top threes --
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Thinking of winning, regardless. If you do the math it's simple. I'm 80th in the world. I'm more than a point average behind, say 50th in the world. And point average is 50 points, 52 points, if you look at the divisor.

Q. No one's ever explained it that well. As simple as anyone's made it.
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I've got to play well, honestly, and winning or not, I've got to keep playing. I still have four or five months ahead of me. It's not a do or die situation. It's not. But again if I can keep playing well and keep moving the right direction, who knows?

Q. Nick's said he'd like to have as much of the team from last time as he can. He needs to see you're in the right direction?
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I think Nick is going to want to have his strongest 12 players to tee it up. I want to be playing well enough to justify being on that 12, whether it's automatic or not. You want to be contributing, and I think that's why I'm so motivated because I didn't have a very good debut at the Presidents Cup. So I feel like I am in a position of something that motivates me.

Q. Talking about your disappointment of not being in Augusta last week. I guess you're pretty pleased, like most of us are, that Sergio won?
ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yes. It's fantastic.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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