Anirban Lahiri, a vital cog of Crushers GC, played an important role in Bryson DeChambeau’s outfit finishing runners-up in the Team Championship when the 2025 LIV Golf season concluded at Michigan in August.
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Despite being the team man, and the bond he shares with his captain and team members Paul Casey and Charles Howell III, Lahiri ended the season without a win once more. Last week’s PIF Saudi International on the Asian Tour‘s International Series is an apt reflection of how the year fluctuated for one of India’s biggest sporting ambassadors on the world stage.
From coming close to sealing his maiden win on LIV for the fourth year running with the T2 in Virginia to the T42 at the Riyadh Golf Club the Sunday that went by, the lessons have been carefully noted and will be put to use when the new season on LIV Golf rolls out at Riyadh in February.
Excerpts from an interview:
T42 with an 8-under 276 total. How you feeling overall?
That is the season over for me, a bit disappointing, some positives, but lots of things to work on, lots of things to take away into the next let’s say, 60 days, 70 days to come back as sharp and as ready as possible for the new season.
So what’s next?
I’ll go back home. I’ll be in Dubai most of December, and then in January, I’ll be traveling a little bit, maybe to India to see my coach, Vijay Devecha, and then on to the US for our media days.
Tell us a bit more about that close season work.
I have worked with Vijay for 25 years now. I worked with him on a remote basis. Either I go to him or he comes to me, but yeah, I’ll be putting in some work there. I think I have been very inconsistent. I feel like my iron play is usually my strength, and it’s kind of let me down in this post season. I won’t say off-season, I say post-season (because of these events on The International Series) (Anirban played the Link Hong Kong Open and the PFI Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers).
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I have wedged it poorly, and I have not hit my irons very close. I haven’t driven it as bad. But I just haven’t had the rounds that I’ve actually struck the ball. Okay, I’ve gone low. There’s a few positives. There have been a few low rounds in there, but just the inconsistency is very annoying.
I will probably go and work on the mental side as well, I am probably getting a bit impatient, where I am expecting more from myself, and being a little hard on myself. So yeah, lots of stuff for me to work on. I have someone I work with, but that work has to be done by me. Nobody else can do it!
With the International Series India presented by DLF and the DP World India Championship earlier this season, tell us your thoughts on the Bryson effect and Rory McIlroy effect. As a member of Bryson’s Crushers GC, do you think it will impact the game in India?
I think it’s been a landmark year for us in India to have so many incredible players come. Obviously, Bryson, beginning of the year, it was incredible to see the number of people who showed up, all the kids, all the fans, all the non-golf fans as well who are such a big demographic for him (Bryson).
Then, of course, you know, the DP World India event, with a bunch of the Ryder Cup stars and Rory coming. It was fantastic. So hopefully we have more events like this, and have more of the best players in the world show up. I think the effect will be seen in three to five to eight years. I’m sure there’s a lot of kids who went back inspired.
I’m sure a lot of kids understood what high-quality golf looks like, sounds like, and I think that’s the main thing. You don’t get exposed to that level of golf to understand what that is. You know, you have an understanding and an assumption of what good golf is. Then you see another level. That happens at every level, even among the pros. So, you know, it’s great that all these guys came and a big thank you to all the people who made these events possible. You know, I encourage them to keep going.
Finally your thoughts on LIV Golf going to 72 holes…
It is going to be a reset to some extent, but really it’s what we’ve done our whole lives. So it’s not that different. You just kind of dial it back to what we were doing four years ago, and switch routines a little bit, switch travel plans a little bit and just crack on with it. I have no issues with it. Hopefully, it leads to better opportunities for all of us.
