Ace Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri finished another exhausting five-week stretch with a round of one-under 71 and decided to head home for a much-needed break after the USD 8.5 million WGC-HSBC Champions here today.
Lahiri's four-day total of six-under-par 282 was only enough for him to finish in tied-40th place at Asia's richest tournament where an elite field featuring close to 40 of the world's top 50 players participated at the Sheshan International Golf Club.
Meanwhile India's other representative at the WGC-HSBC Champions, SSP Chawrasia closed the week with a 72 for a share of 46th place.
Late entrant into the WGC-HSBC, Russell Knox made the most of the opportunity that came his way with a superb final round of 68 that saw him post a total 20-under 268 and win by two shots over American Kevin Kisner (70).
"It was a disappointing week and if I were to look back, it was my second round (75) that put a huge dent in my efforts," said Lahiri, the current Asian Tour Order of Merit leader.
Lahiri, who started the year with wins at the Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open, has decided to skip the BMW Masters in Shanghai next week but will play in the European Tour's season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
Lahiri has at least one more start at the Hero World Challenge in Bahamas in the first week of December.
"It has been a long year and I've been playing at very low energy levels. I'm heading home next week and going to recharge my batteries for the last couple of events. You can't really blame anything (for his disappointing performance this week).
"I just can't say I'm tired or I played badly. I did play well on Saturday so how can you explain that? So it's a combination of a number of factors and fatigue is one of those. I was not 100 per cent fit both mentally and physically. I'm just going to plan my schedule better so that I can be at my best again," said Lahiri.
