Who is Anirban Lahiri? Five things to know about the ace Indian golfer

Ace Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri secured a berth for Tokyo 2020, slated to get underway from July 23 2021, as he was placed 60th in the final Olympic Golf Rankings published on Tuesday.

It will be his second consecutive appearance at the Olympics for the best golfer on the Indian. Lahiri and SSP Chawrasia had represented India when gold made its Olympic debut at Rio 2016.

The World No. 340, was initially on the reserve list, but owing to the withdrawal of many golfers he made the cut for the Olympic Games. The men's golf event in Tokyo will feature 60 players. It will be held at the Kasumigaseki Country Club from July 29 to August 1.

Ahead of the marquee event, here's five things to know about the Indian, who has made 16 major appearances:

Started playing at army golf courses

Anirban started to develop interest in golf after watching his father, Dr. Tushar Lahiri, a physician with the armed forces, play. He would initially accompany his father and pick up golf balls for him.

Later, he went on to play the sport in various army golf courses across India.

"My father is a serving army officer and there are a lot of army courses in India. I moved every three years until I was about 13 or 14. I’ve been everywhere. We had a lot of army courses at our disposal - everything was a little bicycle ride away from me. When I was playing, it was with army officers who would play recreationally. There wasn’t really any company my age, people I could relate to and have fun with," Anirban told The Wall Street Journal.

'Culture of our own'

As he moved around the country quite frequently as a child, he has developed a liking for different kinds of cuisines and traditions even though he was is from a Bengali family.

"Both my parents are Bengali, which basically makes me Bengali. But I’ve only ever lived there for a year and a half. I speak Bengali, I love the culture and I really like the food, so I’m very Bengali in a lot of ways, but because I’ve grown up all over the place, I’m deeply comfortable about speaking Punjabi, I equally enjoy eating north Indian food, and I’ve been living in Bangalore (in 2015) down south for the last 10 years," he told The Wall Street Journal.

"I feel like I’m from everywhere. I’m really proud of the fact that I’m a more national Indian, so to speak - I’m equally comfortable with different languages, cultures, foods. I think that’s one of the aspects of being an army kid. It is one thing that is common among almost every army brat. It’s almost like we are a culture of our own," he added.

Practices Vipassana meditation

Lahiri believes that playing golf can be frustrating at times and thus likes to train himself mentally. He has improved on his temperament and learnt to cope with lean patches through meditation.

He had, incidentally, attended the Vipassana Meditation Center in rural northwest Massachusetts for a 10-day program to clear his mind back in 2017.

"Over the course of meditation, different thoughts and tensions come up, and your continuous effort to go back to focusing on your breath will get you to go deeper into your concentration," Craig Miller, Lahiri's trainer at the center, told ESPN. "This, I am sure, helps him a lot when he is out on the golf course."

"I went in there thinking it was just going to be good for my golf, it will help me with my concentration, and I came out feeling this is great for life," Lahiri said.

"Golf's just a part of our lives. We do have a life off the course, and it helped me be a better person, made it easy for me to make decisions," he added.

His course at Massachusetts, included, waking up at 4 am and going back to sleep as early as 9 pm. He was scheduled to attend individual and joint meditation sessions, food breaks and short, one-on-one sessions with instructors.

Idolizes Tiger Woods

Lahiri started playing golf when his hero and American legend Tiger Woods won his first Masters in 1997. The ace Indian golfer, however, was lucky to meet his idol and also teed off with him at an exhibition event held at the Delhi Golf Club in 2014.

''Meeting him in person, he had a strong, positive aura about him. It was nice to interact with him and pick his brain and get some perspective how he goes about his golf. He's been an idol growing up, a larger than life figure,'' Lahiri told golfchannel.com

First Indian golfer to finish inside top 5 at a Major

He made history in 2015 as he became the first Indian golfer to finish inside the top-5 of a Major, claiming a tied-fifth spot at the prestigious PGA Championships.

He had finished with a total of 13-under 275 and had even rose up to the tied-third spot at one point. The, then 28-year-old, was ecstatic on the result and said it will help boost his confidence.

"This gives me a massive amount of confidence, knowing that I can be out here mixing it up with the best, knowing that I need to get just a little bit better to maybe get closer or over the line in the future. So it’s been a huge week for me,” Lahiri told PTI.

“It feels great. It’s a bit of a relief, really. I’ve never really gotten into contention. I won’t really say I was in contention here, because I was a long ways out. But I was in the mix. It’s a great feeling,” he added.