Lahiri fights hard to remain on Tour
Image: Golf Digest
The only regular on the PGA Tour from India since 2015, Anirban Lahiri has his work cut out in the last half of the 2019 regular season.
With four events to go till the Playoffs, Lahiri has teed it up 22 times this year, making 13 cuts, with only two top-10s to show for it.
The current World No. 290 is ranked 173rd on the FedEx Cup Standings, a stark contrast to previous years in which he finished 119th in 2016, 51st in 2017 and 99th in 2018.
Lahiri has forgone The Barbasol Championship and Barracuda Championship, and also did not make the field at the recently concluded Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
Since 2013, the FedEx Cup rankings determine the top 125 players who would retain their playing rights on the PGA Tour for the following season.
In 2018, Harris English finished 125th on the rankings with $577,032 as his yearly earnings. Lahiri has earned $405,466 this year and Austin Cook currently occupies 125th with $825,760. With the gap increasing, he may have to rely on his partial exemption
on the PGA TOUR for next season.
Koepka named ‘Best Male Golfer’
Brooks Koepka capped off a stellar 13-month run by winning the title of “Best Male Golfer” at the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award (ESPY), hosted by ABC Network on July 10.
Koepka has won the PGAChampionship twice and the US Open once since June 2018. He also finished second at the 2019 Masters to Tiger Woods – by just 1 shot – and at the 2019 US Open to Gary Woodland – by 3 strokes.
Koepka was the runaway PGA Tour Player of the Year in 2018. He beat Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari, and Woods for “Best Male Golfer” ESPY honours.
The 2019 “Best Female Golfer” ESPY Award winner is Brooke Henderson, who won her ninth career event at the Meijer LPGA Classic last month. She beat Ariya Jutanugarn, Jin-Young Ko, and Sung Hyun Park for the honour.
Sharma T-34 in Scotland
Shubhankar Sharma shot a 67 in the final round to finish Tied-34 alongside the likes of Rory McIlroy and defending champion Brandon Stone at the $7 million Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at the Rennaissance Club, North Berwick from July 11-14.
Sharma ended the week at 13-under. His performance earned him 1.78 OWGR points to help him break into the Top-200 in the world at 196, making him the second-best Indian at the moment — behind Gaganjeet Bhullar.
Sharma has made 14 appearances in 2019 so far and has made 8 cuts since then on the European Tour. His best finish of T-6 came at the $2,000,000 Honma Hong Kong Open.
Suri and Brar shine in Germany
Jack Singh Brar 
Julian Suri
The 28-year-old US-born Julian Suri, who came close to winning the 2019 Hero Indian Open, finished T-15 at the BMW International Open alongside Jack Singh Brar of England in Munich, Germany. Brar, the 22-year-old Challenge Tour graduate of 2018, saw his second best finish of the season here, while his best result of 2019, a T-12 came at the €1,100,000 Magical Kenya Open in March. Meanwhile, World No. 111 Suri —who had to struggle with his health in the latter half of 2018 and early 2019 was playing his seventh event of the season in Germany. His T-15 here was his third Top-20 or better finish of the year after a T-2 at Trophee Hassan II, Morocco in April and a T-4 at the Hero Indian Open.
Find out more in our August issue here.