Golf: Anirban Lahiri set to tee off at Palm Beach - his 'home away from home'

Palm Beach: Anirban Lahiri will be playing at ‘home away from home’ as he tees off at Palm Beach this week for the Honda Classic, the last event before the WGC-Mexico and one of the handful left in the run-up to the Masters.

Lahiri, still 77th in World Golf Rankings, needs to move up in a big way to get into the WGC event and the first Major of the year.

Lahiri, who has already had two Top-10s this season but both in late 2017, showed some signs of the same form when he was T-13 after three rounds at the Riviera, but a series of three-putts on the final days pushed him to T-26.

He may be trending in the right direction but will need a consistent four days to get a solid result that could get him the results he wants in 2018, including the breakthrough win on the PGA.

At the Honda Classic at Palm Beach, Lahiri will be paired with John Huh and Scott Piercy in the first two rounds.

Whether or not he misses out on the WGC-Mexico, Lahiri will fly back home to India in the first week of next month for his home tournament, the Hero Indian Open, where he won his last title back in 2015. He has not won since.

Meanwhile, all eyes will once again be on Tiger Woods who is back after missing the cut last week at the Riviera.

The big stars in the field include defending champion Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood in what will be a home tournament for many in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. There will also be Sergio Garcia, Alex Noren, Tyrell Hatton among others.

Just like the track at the Riviera, the Palm Beach course will be a tough challenge.

This will be one of Woods’ last chances before Augusta National to compete at a tournament. However, he might also show up the Arnold Palmer Invitational and maybe one more pre-Masters event.