Anirban Lahiri wins long-drive competition at PGA Championship
MOSEL, Wis. -- Grip it and rip. Tee it high and let it fly. Let the big dog eat. Pick your phrase because the fact remains every one digs the long ball.
On Tuesday, the only leaderboard that mattered at the PGA Championship recorded the longest drives at the 593-yard, second hole at Whistling Straits.
One by one the groups arrived at the par-5 hole, had their names announced and then it was bombs away. Begun in 1952 at Big Spring Country Club in Louisville, KY, the PGA Championship Driving Contest resumed last year after a lengthy hiatus and let’s hope it is here to stay. Like the par-3 contest at Augusta, it adds some levity and good cheer before the serious business of competing for the final major of the year. Insults along the lines of “Is that all you got?” and self-deprecating humor flew back and forth. Martin Kaymer took a running start “Happy Gilmore” style. Rory Sabbatini begged for his ball to hit a sprinkler head. Guessing the distance seemed to be half the fun. Russell Knox predicted his shot flew 276 yards. When it measured at 278 yards, a smile stretched across his face and he facetiously proclaimed, “I’m big. That was the turkey sandwich for lunch.”
Over the years, the winners included Roberto De Vicenzo (1954, 301 yards), three-time winner George Bayer (1960-1962 with a best of 307 yards) and Jack Nicklaus in 1963 and 1964. Nicklaus pocketed a priceless memento, which he discussed in previewing the 2013 PGA Championship.
“I have a money clip that’s in my pocket right now and it’s been in my pocket for 50 years. It says, ‘Driving Distance Winner,’ ” Nicklaus said. “That drive was 341 yards, 17 inches. I do remember that, too.”
Anything else, Jack?
“That was an 11-degree wood driver, with a 32-and-three-quarter-inch Dynamic Edge shaft, and they had – everybody used the same golf ball so nobody had a preference on what golf ball was hit.”
Nicklaus’ pride swelled wider than the billfold. Some things you just never forget.
And so when the PGA revived the contest for the first time since 1984, it brought back the gold medal clip. Louis Oosthuizen won it at Valhalla. But the defending champion failed to show at his title defense. He forgot about the competition and played the front nine on Monday and the back side on Tuesday.
“I think I probably would have just missed the fairway,” Oosthuizen said.
That was the fate of long bombers such as Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy, and Tony Finau. At least Watson stepped up with his pink-shafted Ping G30 driver this go-around after teeing off with a 3-iron at Valhalla.
"I’m there to play golf, not to hit it far," Watson said last year.
This time? “I tied a bunch of people that missed the fairway, I guess,” Watson said. “At least last year I hit the fairway.”
Leave it to a guy listed at 5 feet, 9 inches and 170 pounds to steal the show. India’s Anirban Lahiri looks like he’d need to hit a sprinkler to beat the likes of Bubba and Rory, but benefiting from a right-to-left morning breeze, Lahiri smashed a drive with his trademark draw 327 yards and it held up all day.
Lahiri was an unlikely champion with his 294.3 average poke on the PGA Tour good enough for T-60 in driving distance and ranking a more-paltry 79th on the European Tour (292.3).
Using a Callaway Big Bertha 10.3-degree V Series driver and Srixon Z-Star XV golf ball, Lahiri powered it past J.B. Holmes (315 yards), who led at the time and eventually finished in third place.
“When I hit it, I thought I had a chance,” Lahiri said.
This wasn’t Lahiri’s first rodeo. In 2009 and 2010, he won long-drive contests on the Asian Tour, including a 365-yarder that ran forever on the parched fairways of India. This time he figured he needed a good bounce. As the last of his threesome to hit, Lahiri already had begun walking down the fairway when he heard the announcement that he’d taken the lead. Lahiri raised his arms to the skies in jubilation. Nobody could get closer than Matt Dobyns, who fell four yards short.
Along with the gold money-clip like the one Nicklaus still cherishes, Lahiri earned a $25,000 donation to the charity of his choosing. (He said he’d donate it to the Vipassana meditation center that he has attended for the past 10 years.) As for the money clip, he said, “It’s going to be on me all week.”
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