Anirban Lahiri embarks on a new journey as he tees up this week at the USD 5.8 million Career Builder Challenge for his first start in the US this season.
It will also be his first start as a full member of the PGA Tour, for which he qualified after coming through as one of the graduates from the Web.Com Tour Final series.
For Lahiri, it will be the beginning of a dream that took shape as he won twice in three weeks and got into top-50 of the world around 11 months ago.
Lahiri will tee up with pro Kevin Chappell at La Quinta Country Club in the tournament that is played over three courses -- Pete Dye designed TPC Stadium Course at PGA West; the Nicklaus Tournament Course and the La Quinta Country Club.
The 28-year-old Indian has evoked considerable interest in the US, following his top-50 ranking and appearance at all four Majors and a tied fifth place finish at the PGA Championships last year.
He capped it by becoming the first Indian to play the Presidents Cup for the International team.
Lahiri earned his TOUR card with top-16 finishes in the first two Finals events. Last year was a significant season in his career as he hit the spotlight with two wins in three weeks on the European Tour in February 2015.
Eleven months later he is in the US with a PGA Tour status. It was a year in which he played all Majors and the WGC and a select number of PGA Tour events, which pushed him onto world stage.
So, despite being a rookie, he may not feel like one when he tees it up this year.
Lahiri, who made it a habit of criss-crossing the globe last year, intends to do less of that and focus more on the US Tour.
"I am looking to play a full season out in the US so I'm very excited," said Lahiri, who is now No. 41 in the world.
"I played on a lot of new courses last year and it going to be similar this season and a big learning curve. At La Quinta (Career Builder Challenge), I will play on three courses; then there is two courses in Torrey Pines (Farmers Insurance), and another two courses in Arizona (Waste Management Phoenix Open). I'm not used to playing tournament golf on multiple courses so that's going to be new.
