Anirban Lahiri creates history with top-five finish at the PGA Championships

Anirban Lahiri reached a new peak on 16 August. He created history for Indian golf by becoming the first from the country to finish inside the top-five of a Major, signing off a brilliant tied fifth in the prestigious PGA Championships here.

Lahiri played a superb final round of 68, after first three rounds of 70-67-70, for a total of 13-under 275. In fact, at one stage, he rose to as high as tied third during the day.

The 28-year-old, who hit the global golf headlines with stunning wins in the Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open in a span of three weeks, will return to top-50 in the new rankings and is also a near-certainty for the International Team for the President's Cup in Incheon, Korea in October.

"This gives me a massive amount of confidence, knowing that I can be out here mixing it up with the best, knowing that I need to get just a little bit better to maybe get closer or over the line in the future. So it's been a huge week for me," Lahiri said.

Talking of the finish and being somewhere close to top, Lahiri said, "It feels great. It's a bit of a relief, really.

I've never really gotten into contention. I won't really say I was in contention here, because I was a long ways out. But I was in the mix. It's a great feeling."

The tied fifth end saw Lahiri improve on the tied ninth finish in the PGA Championships in 2008 by Jeev Milkha Singh.

Lahiri, who played all four Majors and made cuts in three was tied 49th at Masters and tied 30th at The Open.

Jason Day finally won a Major, after nine top-10 finishes. One of Day's top-10 was this year at US Open where he suffered an attack of vertigo but still finished tied-ninth.

He was also fourth at British Open and has been second twice at US Open and once at Masters. Day (67) totalled a record 20-under 268 and finished three shots ahead of Jordan Spieth (68) was second at 17-under.

Branden Grace (14-under) and Justin Rose (14-under) were third and fourth, while Lahiri tied with Brooks Koepka for fifth.

Masters and US Open champion, Spieth finished in Top-4 of each of the four Majors as he was Tied fourth at British Open and was second at PGA.

The consolation for Spieth, who started his string of success with the successive wins in Australian Open and Tiger Woods' run Hero World Challenge in December, was that he rose to No. 1 in World Golf Rankings ahead of Rory McIlroy, who on return from an ankle injury was Tied-17.

-PTI