SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 1, 2020

Anirban Lahiri

Country Club of Jackson

Quick Quotes

Q. You took advantage of some good conditions and you're playing great, so it's a good combination out there.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yeah, lots of good combinations. Obviously confidence is up. I feel like I'm playing really well. I like this golf course. Last year was my first time here, and I really like the way it sets up. It reminds me a lot of the tracks I grew up playing in Asia. Probably not greens this quick, but similar to look at.

Yeah, conditions were great. I think the weather is a welcome change after last week, and I enjoyed myself out there.

Q. Last week a tie for sixth got you into this week, so obviously you're playing well. It just carried over. Sometimes that's hard to do from week to week.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I don't know hard or easy, I'm just doing the same things that I did last week and the week before that in Napa, as well. I'm just trying to stick to my process and just check the boxes and be happy with that. The results are coming right now. I'm swinging it good, feel like I've got a good grip on my putter right now, which you need this week. So yeah, I'm in a good place. I feel confident.

I guess it's good to have that motivation to get to Vegas now, I guess, or maybe even better. So we'll see.

Q. How did you get to that good place that you're talking about?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I think the lockdown really helped to start. I think the lockdown really helped me. I was in India for five months. I left pretty much the Monday after Bay Hill to go play the Asian Open, and then we got locked in. They closed the borders down. So I was there for a long time. Spent about 40 days straight with my coach before I came back out here, and I got back to the basics, undid a lot of the bad habits that had crept into the game and just tried to clean up the game, clean up the mind and just get really -- just prepare. So far so good.

Q. Remind me of your coach's name?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Vijay Divecha, back in India.

Q. I heard a story about how you booked a flight -- can you tell me that story?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: It isn't exactly a story, but Jackson isn't exactly an easy place to get to, especially from the Dominican. I knew I had to talk them to get in. To be honest I felt really good up in Napa, had a horrific start and really fought my way back, played some quality golf after a long time. I felt like I could ride that momentum last week, and I love playing paspalum, so I just had that feeling that if I go out there and do what I'm doing right now, I should get on that plane to Jackson. It paid off.

Q. What was the level of satisfaction to accomplish that?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Oh, definitely a lot. You know, I find myself in a weird place in terms of my eligibility. You know, I obviously haven't had very good seasons the last couple of years and I missed a bunch of events. I have to just kind of play my way into events, and that's really the first priority, to have the right kind of schedule, to have a full go at the golf courses that I like to play and the events that I like to play, and just get back to contending or getting into contention on the weekend. So there's a lot of those goals and they really motivate you. It's been a long time, and I haven't been in this situation for a long, long time, and I think it's good. It's been a wake-up call, and so far I'm responding to it positively.

Q. Did you and your coach find something in your putting?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: No, not really. It's not about finding things. I think it's overrated when you say, oh, I found this or I found that. Most of the stuff is already in there, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten here to start. But along the way a lot of things get overridden on it. It's like you keep having more data and more data on top of the other, and then it's all about kind of removing the layers that aren't good for you because the good stuff is there. You wouldn't be here if there wasn't any good stuff. So it's not so much about, oh, I found it, it's about removing some of the garbage, at least in my case. There was a lot of that that had crept in, both mentally and technically, and still trying to clean that up. I'm still working and I'm going to keep working and keep trying to get better.

Q. If you don't top 10 --

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I'll go back and have a great week with my family and come back out in Bermuda and try and contend that week.

Q. When you say go home, go where?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Palm Beach.