Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri
will tee off in the USD 6.5 million Farmers Insurance at Torrey Pines here in his second PGA Tour event, looking to improve consistently in his debut season.
Lahiri, who opened the year with a stunning share of the first round lead and then finished tied 28th after a modest weekend at last week's Career Builder Challenge, is looking for a better showing on the greens.
The 28-year-old, who hit the headlines with his twin wins in Malaysia and Hero Indian Open last year, went on to finish tied fifth at the PGA Championships -- the best-ever finish in a Major by an Indian golfer.
The field this week is power packed and includes defending champion Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, who was third last week, Brandt Snedeker, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed, Hideki Matsuyama, Dustin Johnson and Bill Haas.
Lahiri, while pleased with the start on the first two rounds at Career Builder Challenge over which he was 12-under. But over the weekend Lahiri managed only two-under and finished at 14-under.
While the Career Builder Challenge was played over three courses, the Farmers Insurance Open will be played over two courses at Torrey Pines.
Speaking of last week Lahiri said, "I got off to two bad starts over the weekend. I feel I need to adjust to the lines on the greens and the Rye grass. Despite good scores in the first two rounds, I felt that at least in the second I missed a bunch of putts, but was in a good position going into the weekend. Then I had bad starts on Saturday and Sunday."
"I still feel the game is in good shape. Hopefully I will play more consistently over the next few weeks. I am looking forward to the Farmers Insurance this week. I want to play as much as I can at the start of the season and get used to it all."
Lahiri hopes to play as much as he can in the early part of the season and hopes to get into the Fedex Play-off. He will also play events on the European Tour and at the end of the year he may start at some events on Asian Tour.
Lahiri will play the first round with Zac Blair, who showed amazing form with the putter at the same venue last year.
The third player will be Tony Finau, a long hitter, who is ranked fourth on distance off the tee. Both Finau and Blair missed the cut last week at Career Builder, but Blair was third at Sony Open earlier on.
