RIDGELAND: Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri will look to regain his peak form and end his poor run on the PGA Tour when he tees up at Palmetto Championship this week.
The 33-year-old Indian, who had his momentum halted with some disappointing results on the West Coast and then because of COVID-19, plays the first round with Smylie Kaufman and Padraig Harrington.
Another Indian Arjun Atwal is also in the field and he plays early morning with Tommy Fleetwood and Chase Seiffert.
Lahiri has been on the PGA Tour since 2016 but is yet to make his breakthrough.
After a promising start to the new 2020-21 PGA Tour season late last year when he made all four cuts and had a Top-10 finish in Dominican Republic, Lahiri has found the going tough in 2021.
He has made only three cuts, including a fifth place in Texas Open so far.
Talking about his season, Lahiri, who also missed the cut in the Charles Schwab Challenge last month, said: "I think obviously fall was really good.
I was focused and I played pretty well.
Then starting out on the West Coast I've always found it a little difficult with the weather and the golf courses.
"I kind of lost a little bit of confidence early in the year. I had to do a lot of work and I think I got into a really good space. I had a really good finish in Texas and then two weeks later I was down with COVID and took (away) all the momentum and all the work I had put in for the last six months. So it's been definitely frustrating. "
Only the top 125 players in the FedExCup standings will be eligible to play in the FedExCup Playoffs, a series of three events and Lahiri is currently ranked 122.
"I think it's pretty simple for me. I've done some good work over the last few months," said Lahiri, who last won in 2015 at the Hero Indian Open.
"I'm just trying to get back to playing good golf because I know if I play anywhere near my best, I can produce the results I need; not just to get to the playoffs but go deep in the playoffs.
"I would love to make it all the way down to the TOUR Championship.
But right now I'm just focusing on the job at hand and just taking it one day at a time, one week at a time, because I've had to deal and face that challenge in front of me for the last couple of months, so I'm just in that state of mind right now."
Lahiri also admits having one eye on the Olympics.
"Definitely. I know that this is the last of the qualification weeks. It will be a nice bonus, but I've got a lot of things that I need to take care of and when you play golf there's always something to do; even if you're doing well, you can do better.
If you're top-50 you can be top-25, if you're top-25, (then) top-10.
That's the nature of what we do.
So there's always a lot to play for like the Tokyo Olympics, the playoffs, it's never ending."