Gurugram: The early afternoon temperature touched almost 40 degrees Celsius, yet it was warm-up time for the groups of players on Wednesday at the DLF Golf and Country Club course for this week’s $2.25 million Hero Indian Open.
The Gary Player-designed course has left even top players frustrated, the rough and the difficulty of landing close to the pin due to the undulating greens. Indian fans, though, will hope it will be a home winner on Sunday.
An Indian has not won since 2017 – four editions have been held since through the Covid disruptions. SSP Chowrasia completed back-to-back wins that year when the national open was moved here. He is in the 138-player field on the sponsor’s invitation. Veer Ahlawat came close last year, finishing tied second, and three shots off winner, Japan’s Keita Nakajima.
However, it is likely to be Shubhankar Sharma who will carry the biggest expectation among the 29 Indians in the field. Still only 28, the player who finished T8 at the Open Championship in 2022 braving brutal weather conditions can be expected to battle through in a tournament where he has made the cut on all seven occasions.
That unblemished record is topped by his T7 finish in 2018, his finest season early in his professional career also the year India saw winners on the European circuit (now DP World Tour). His two rousing wins early that year were followed by Gaganjeet Bhullar’s success in the Fiji International that August. The wait for an Indian to win on the tour has continued since then.
It has been a slow build-up this season for Shubhankar. He missed the cut in his first four DP World Tour events, but comes to what is his home course after the best effort, T36 finish at last week’s Singapore Classic, the first of four Asia Swing events on the DP World Tour.
“This year, the rough is thick. It’s so different from last year -- it was really soft, the cut was at minus one,” he told the media on Wednesday. The last edition though was played a month earlier in the season, in cooler conditions.
“This course is a different one now. The greens are hard, it’s tough to stop the ball from the fairway, let it be from the rough, and even try and hit it close to the pin. Under par is going to be a really good score – under par for four days, if the course stays this way and they don’t make any changes. It will only get hotter… I think under par will be top 10 for sure, if the course is like this.”
Shubhankar said he has experimented with his clubs a lot. “It’s been a slow start (to the season), but I’ve been feeling really good about my game… I’ve been through some equipment changes, I’ve changed about six shafts and heads over the past three months.
“This is my eighth year on tour. I also understand it’s a very long season, so you don’t want to get too anxious, too quickly. It’s a marathon… you just need to strike when you’re feeling really good about the game.”
The wait for an Indian winner question brought out a weary response, but he felt Indian golfers were on an upward trajectory, especially those who can hit longer off the tee, a vital quality for success internationally.
“Golf is one of those games where just winning is not important. It’s more important that more and more players come out and play on higher tours. And that has only progressed over the years.”
Ahlawat, 29, earned his DP World Tour card as the PGTI (domestic tour) Order of Merit winner. “To finish second in such a big stage (in 2024), especially in front of my home crowd, was a big confidence boost,” he said.
Ollie Schniederjans (US), who ended his nine-year wait by winning the International Series event on this course in early February, will be among the strong contenders.