When I first met him, he was in his teens practicing as the sun mellowed at a golf course in the outskirts of Bangalore. Today, the 26-year young lad, in the last 24 hours, has made global headlines for playing side by side with golf greats like Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson with equal strength and elegance. Meet Anirban Lahiri, one of India’s most promising golfers who recently bagged the People’s Choice Award for the Best Golfer at India Golf Awards. Lahiri is on top of his golf, more than ever before and the wonderful thing about competing with top talent is that it’s not just a learning experience but also a sign that Indians are playing well, and their game matches international golf. Introduced to the game by his father, an army officer, Lahiri picked up the game at the age of eight. Although he and compatriot Gaganjeet Bhullar were already set to be Indian golf’s new poster boys, Lahiri’s big break came when he qualified for his maiden major – the 2012 Open Championship at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire.  For someone who got his first cheque of Rs 12,000 in 2005, Lahiri has made his mark by staying in the cream of the Asian Tour Order of Merit, and such one-offs as The Open, and in 2013 alone he clocked $427,496 in earnings. At the nucleus of Lahiri’s success lies a routine and a story of hardnosed determination. Just as he tipped over into his twenties, Lahiri adopted meditation and Vipassana techniques to support his golf, something no other player had done so early in his career and nor with such regularity. Lahiri who has three wins in Asia enjoyed a memorable 2012, winning his second Asian Tour title at the SAIL-SBI Open in India. Lahiri is among the dozen Indians who played the Thailand Golf Championships. We know our players are trying and trying hard. They are training to get better and set benchmarks.But for long, we have all waited for a mega win from a youngster, one that can propel the sport into the headlines,  and play back our talent to the rest of the world.Shaili Chopra is an award-winning business journalist and founder of www.golfingindian.com

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