New Delhi: Gaganjeet Bhullar knows what it takes to tame golf courses. The 11-time winner on the Asian Tour — the most by an Indian — has entered the 20th year of his professional career, and while that makes him one of the longest-serving Indian pros around, it also gives him a vantage view of the state of the game in the country. And his analysis is brutally honest.
The 37-year-old believes Indian golf is going through a terminal slump and the lack of depth in the men’s golf is “very disturbing.”
“I am extremely sad with the way things are. There seems to be no depth, there are no wins on international tours. Indian golf is going through its worst phase,” Bhullar said on the sidelines of the Indian Golf Premier League (IGPL) event.
Bhullar’s dismay is not unwarranted. Indian golf, once served well in tandem with the likes of Arjun Atwal, Jeev Milkha Singh, and Jyoti Randhawa, is looking for its next global superstar. Indian presence on the European Tour (DP World Tour) is limited to Shubhankar Sharma, who, thanks to PGTI’s strategic partnership with the DP World Tour, is joined by the domestic tour’s Order of Merit winner every year since 2023. On the Asian Tour, Bhullar is the lone constant from India while the PGA Tour has had no Indian presence since Anirban Lahiri moved to the LIV Tour.
For 2026, besides Bhullar, only Shaurya Bhattacharya, Rashid Khan, Ajeetesh Sandhu and Shubham Jaglan have managed to earn full season’s card. That’s two fewer than what it was in 2025.
Interestingly, Bhullar remains the last Indian man to win on the Asian Tour (November 2023) as well as the DP World Tour (August 2018). He showed no signs of slowing down on the IGPL tour either, claiming three wins in five outings in 2025. “These are not the stats I am proud of. I’d rather prefer an Indian youngster running me close,” he said.
The reasons for the slide, Bhullar believes, are manifold. While the money has flowed into the domestic tour and players having far greater access to cutting edge technology, there’s one defining intangible that modern players lack. “It’s got to do with hunger,” he said.
“You ought to dream big. You can’t limit your aspirations. You have to dream about winning on the Asian Tour, European Tour and PGA Tour. You have to believe you can be the best in the world. Everything else, be it skills, technology, ecosystem comes later.”
“Our players are happy making money, which is fine, but where is the hunger to win? You can’t be satisfied with top-10s or top-5s anymore,” Bhullar added.
The Asian Tour, which used to be the primary foreign tour conducting competitions in India, has dramatically cut down its presence in the country after having partnered with LIV. Last year, the tour returned to India after a two-year hiatus with the inaugural $500,000 Bharat Classic in Ahmedabad. The competition has been confirmed for this year as well while the International Series -- co-sanctioned by LIV -- will be held in Bengaluru in the second half of the year.
“Lack of Asian Tour events is a problem, for sure, but that can’t be a reason for our non-performance. There is no PGA Tour event in India either but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t dream of winning there,” Bhullar said.