The match went up to the par five 18th hole and Lahiri seemed to have the upperhand by getting close for birdie while Kirk left himself with a tricky 15-footer. And the You can introduce.S. Team was also one last one lasting as it was in fact all said and done.
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At that moment, rarely has such a competition seen such a swift turnaround.
Lahiri ended his Presidents Cup campaign, where was the first Indian to feature with the biennial team event, with three losses but vowed to fight his way back into the worldwide Team in two years’ time.
None was quite as dramatic and stunning as what transpired on the green in a match between Anirban Lahiri of India and Chris Kirk.
Lahiri played his to near perfection, up the slope and rolling to 4 feet away.
The Indian debutant looked set to have a putt from inside 1m to win his match against Chris Kirk until the American rolled in a superb 5m putt of his own with their match all square.
Kirk’s putt fell upon the finishing convert. Obviously didn’t expect Anirban to unfortunately miss that putt. “These things are scripted I guess, and I wasn’t in the script this time”. “And I wasn’t in the script”.
From there, Victorian Marc Leishman pulled off an upset victory over world No. 1 Jordan Spieth, superbly holding his nerve on the last for a birdie to give the global team one last shot at glory. He spoke with poise, exuding the kind of graciousness that already has made him popular with the PGA Tour players he will join next year in America. The most famous missed putt in a Ryder Cup was by Bernhard Langer in 1991 at Kiawah Island.
It looked to be an nearly certain victory for the worldwide Team, until Kirk drained his putt for the birdie, putting pressure on Lahiri.
There are stars. And there are nightmares. Today was similar. I didn’t play too badly. But I think I did what I’ve done all week: “Misread putts”.
Lahiri said told reporters afterwards that he felt awful after his mistake and wished he could replay the putt again.
“I had Bubba come up to me about a minute after we finished and he said he had done the same exact thing”. I’m sure the rest of the team is going to help me out with that with the evening’s festivities.
Lahiri still knew his short putt for a halve would be critical. His opponent, Bill Haas, son of the United States skipper, Jay Haas, grabbed the chance with both hands and took the hole and with it the match 2-up. “It’s been awful”, Lahiri said. “Rickie (Fowler) made everything when he played against us on Thursday”, the 28-year-old tournament debutant said. Price also consoled him privately and in public.
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Price went on, “I said to Anirban, you know, he may never have a putt that he’ll be that nervous over, but he hit a great putt. We are going to make sure he goes away from here with a wonderful experience and not let him dwell on what happened today”.
