Two-time defending champion Anirban Lahiri would be eyeing a hat-trick at the Asian Tour’s season-opening USD 300,000 SAIL-SBI Open which will tee off at the prestigious Delhi Golf Club on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old, who beat Thailand’s Prom Meesawat and compatriot Rashid Khan in play-offs in 2012 and 2013 respectively, will have to compete against a stellar field, including former Order of Merit champions Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand.
The Indian challenge will be strengthened by the presence of former Asian Tour winners SSP Chowrasia, Digvijay Singh, Rahil Gangjee, Jyoti Randhawa and Himmat Singh Rai.
Rashid Khan, the 2013 SAIL-SBI Open runner-up and reigning Rolex Rankings champion on the PGTI Tour, will once again be a force to reckon with on his home course.
“I had a good couple of season in the last two years because I had a good start to the season. It is an important factor for success. This is the only year that I have played a lot of golf before SAIL open, so in a way I am match fit,” Lahiri told reporters.
“This is my sixth SAIL Open and I have played in DGC. Despite the recent rains and winter, DGC is still in good shape and I have managed to find a strategy here and I would look to do the same this year and I hope to be win the title for the third time,” added Lahiri, who finished third on the Merit list last season.
The field also includes Siddikur Rahman of Bangladesh, Malaysia’s Nicholas Fung, the 2013 Asian Development Tour No 1, Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng, winner of the season-ending King’s Cup Golf Hua Hin in January, countrymen Prom Meesawat, Chawalit Plalphol, Chapchai Nirat and Arnond Vongvanij, Filipino Angelo Que, Korea’s Kim Gi-whan and American Berry Henson.
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