Anirban Lahiri’s a Major factor

Anirban Lahiri during The Players Championship recently. Pic/Getty Images

Golf legend Gary Player on Tuesday said Anirban Lahiri's second place finish at The Players Championship just shows that India are not very far from having a Major winner.

Lahiri finished sole second at The Players Championship in Florida, USA, on March 14 to walk away with a career-best USD 2.18 million in earnings.

Gary Player

"Lahiri's performance was such an amazing effort against all the best players in the world," the nine-time Major champion told reporters on the eve of the DGC Open here.

"He finished second in the fifth most important tournament and I wonder if the Indian population realise the publicity that he got for India is quite remarkable.

"If Lahiri can finish second at The Players, he can definitely win a Major, no question and what a happy day it would be for me to see an African or a person from India winning a Major."

The 86-year-old from South Africa is regarded as one of the all-time greats in golf, having won 160 titles worldwide since 1963. He is only the third golfer to win the "Grand Slam of Golf".

"It [An Indian Major winner] is coming, because you have the standard of play, you have good golf courses, good climate, it can happen," he said.

"To become a champion, you have to be a different kind of person. You got to be dedicated, you got to live it morning, day and night and not many people are prepared to be that."

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever