THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 14, 2022

Anirban Lahiri

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. One-shot lead right now at THE PLAYERS Championship. Good feeling going into the final round later today?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yeah, it's fantastic. I got off to a really good start yesterday, kept the momentum going, and came back out this morning. I was to be honest not my sharpest, and hitting that fat shot on 12 to start the day kind of was a slap in my face, woke me up.

Yeah, I think I'm happy with the way I finished and just looking forward to the rest of the day.

Q. How did it feel sleeping on a lead?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I don't know. I had 25 holes to go when I went to bed, and that's a lot of golf on a lot of golf course.

There's not much to get too far ahead of yourself. I'm just trying to stay in the moment and just do what I need to do next.

I think the short turnaround time actually helps because you don't really have time to do anything else. You're just on a schedule and you're trying to make sure that you are resting and prepping and feeling and doing all the things that you need to do. It's been pretty good actually.

Q. Not to be overly dramatic, but last night did things start to sink in, the weight of what was going on?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: There's nothing to sink in, to be honest. If you ask me this question tomorrow after a good result, then yes, that's a legitimate question, but I've played golf long enough to know anything can happen; this is golf. Like I said, there wasn't much time to do anything. I think I got home at about quarter to 9:00, and my food was just getting delivered. I was just counting minutes.

Q. How old is that set of irons and what's been the biggest benefit to having some weight to them?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: So the irons per se themselves aren't very old. They have about six months of wear on them. But the model is from 2014. It's been a hard time for me to procure them. I think a lot of us on TOUR once we get set on how some of these irons look, we want to stick to them.

I was happy I got a set from G-Mac last week in Orlando, so I think I'm good in terms of the irons.

But just one of those things when I came here in 2015 and '16, I started playing here, my specs from then to now have changed. But they had only changed with my woods and my putter. My irons were pretty much the same as when I came here seven years ago. That's basically what we thought and talked about and said, let's experiment. It can't be worse than what it is. I've been hitting it so bad to be honest. I was like, you know what, let's just throw some lead tape on and see what happens because I've felt like I'm swinging good, and yeah, it made a huge difference, obviously, you can see.

Q. Where did you get the most recently --

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: We did this Monday.

Q. You said the set is six months old. Where did you get it?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: From Srixon. I've been playing the Srixon irons forever. I love them, and they were nice enough to get me one of the last few sets, so hanging on to --

Q. Did you give anything to G-Mac in exchange for them?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I told him I'd take him for a nice curry dinner. I know he likes it, so yeah, he's up for that.

Q. Which memories do you think you'll lean on the most this afternoon?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: There's no time for the memories, you've just got to stay in the present. I think the next shot is all I'm thinking about and trying to not carry anything forward. It's very easy to do on this golf course, so yeah. Really I'm only looking forward.

Q. How are you able to get into this happy place that you've been describing yourself in?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I love golf, and when you know you can play well and you don't, you're not happy. Then when you start playing well again and you start hitting it the way you want to hit it again, you are happy. I mean, it's pretty simple.

I'm just in that place right now where I'm just hitting it nice, I'm seeing it nice, I'm feeling it nice, and that just makes me happy.

Q. Purely golf related?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Absolutely. It doesn't have to come from anywhere else.

Q. What's the model of the Srixons?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: It's the 914, the Z914s, the blades from 2014.

Q. They were talking on the broadcast that you meditate quite a bit. How long have you been doing that?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Since I was 17.

Q. And what prompted it and how much do you meditate?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Just my mom and dad went and did that specific course, and I saw the change in them and they were much better off after doing it, so I was like, hey, this might be good for my golf, and I went there and then when I came out, I was like, this is good for me. Golf is just something that I do. It kind of changed my perspective on life, and I've been doing it since. I have been guilty of going away from it and not doing it as much as I would like to do, but I have definitely gotten back to doing more of it and just connecting more with just the act of being in the present. That's it.

Q. Every day for 20 minutes or how long?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yeah, yeah, about half an hour at least, and I do other things, too, but yes.