Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri played an impressive stretch at the start of the back nine as he finished Tied 13th, a second successive Top-15 finish for him, at the Quicken Loans National.
For Lahiri, who has been struggling with his scoring this year, the final round of 67 coming on the heels of a 65 in third round ensured a decent finish at T-13. This is his best apart from the three Top-10s he has had in the ongoing wrap-around season.
Meanwhile, Francesco Molinari won his maiden PGA Tour title and that came by a massive margin of eight shots. Behind him there was Tiger Woods (66) in fourth place.
Lahiri trudged along with nine straight pars but did not become frustrated. He was rewarded with a birdie on 10th, but quickly gave that away with a bogey on 11th when he hit into the water off the tee.
On the 13th, he sank an 18-footer for a birdie and followed that up with an eagle 2 on the Par-4 14th, when he drove the green and landed inside 10 feet and holed the eagle putt. He then settled for four closing pars and a 67.
“It was a decent final round, but once again a case of what-could-have-been. Those two doubles in the second round were costly and some other errors cost me dearly,” said Lahiri.
But on the final, Francesco Molinari made no errors with a sensational 8-under 62 that included a five-hole super stretch from 10th. It began with a monster 48-foot eagle and continued with four more birdies, the longest of which came from 12 feet. Earlier on front nine, second and sixth.
Woods fought his way to a 4-under 66 that propelled him to fourth. He had six birdies and two bogeys but was 10 shots behind Molinari, who was in incredible form and won by 8 strokes.
While Molinari was way ahead, Woods was just two shots out of second.
“Well, I think the last two days playing holes 13, 14 the way I did. I bogeyed 13 twice and then didn’t birdie 14 either day, and I was right there next to the green. Those are things that I can’t afford to do and expect to win a golf tournament,” said Woods.
