Anirban Lahiri finishes tied 30th in French Open

After a birdie spree on the front nine, Anirban Lahiri was once again struck down by bogeys and double bogeys as he ended the week of the Alstom Open de France with a final round of 71.
His earlier rounds were 69, 77 and 70. Lahiri once again suffered with contrasting fortunes on the front and back nines of the Le National Golf Club.
Lahiri was on fire on front nine with five birdies and then kept a steady momentum before collapsing on last few holes with one bogey and two doubles.
At one stage, the Indian had risen to inside Top-20 but then dropped to tied 30th later on. The Le National is known to be tough over the last four and it extracted a big price from the Indian star.

Lahiri played extremely well over the front nine on all days, but it was the back nine which did him in, especially on the first and last days.
Through the entire week, Lahiri had just one bogey on the front nine and in contrast he had no birdies on the back nine and a total of four double bogeys.

Lahiri said,"No doubt the golf course was tough, but like at Majors, one needed to be so precise that small errors were magnified at Le National and the price was too high. I learnt it to my cost.
"By the way, it is because it is so challenging that Le National has been selected for the 2018 Ryder Cup. The last four holes are known to be very tough and challenging. While I made the weekend on the line and then some progress after that, I feel I could have done more, but I need to be patient," he added.

He went on,"My game is in the right place. I am playing alright. It showed this week, but I need to keep things more steady."
While Lahiri made the cut on the line on Friday, two other Indians, Shiv Kapur and Jeev Milkha Singh missed the cut. On Sunday in the final day, Lahiri began with three pars and then had three birdies on the trot. A par and then two more birdies on eighth and ninth meant he turned in five-under.
The return journey was fine till the 13th after four successive pars. Then the wheels came off as he bogeyed the 14th, doubled the 15th and again doubled the 18th. He double bogeyed the 15th and 18th two times this week.

Up in the front, Bernd Wiesberger was moving towards a win, as he had five birdies between fifth and ninth and then five pars from 10th to 14th. He was 12-under with four most challenging holes to play, while Martin Kaymer, three-under through 14 holes, was three shots behind.
James Morrison, also three-under for the day after 14 holes was also tied second. Overnight leader Jacob Van Zyl was two-over and struggling and he had dropped to tied fourth.