The European Tour arrives in Delhi for the Hero Indian Open, a tournament that is co sanctioned with the Asian Tour for the third consecutive year.
REWIND
SSP Chawrasia produced a gutsy, closing one under par 71 to hold off the challenge of defending champion Anirban Lahiri and Jeunghun Wang to win the 2016 Hero Indian Open.
The home favourite had finished second in this event four times, including the previous year when Lahiri defeated him in a play-off, but this time he held his nerve down the stretch to claim a third European Tour title by two shots.
Lahiri had held a tie for the lead on the front nine as he signed for a 69, while Wang recorded a closing 68, but could never rein in a man who is an expert at Delhi Golf Club.
In 16 previous appearances Chawrasia had ten top tens on the New Delhi layout, including two wins, and he showed all his skill around the narrow, tree-lined course to claim a long-awaited national open title.
BITE-SIZED HISTORY
The oldest international event in India was first held in 1964 with five-time Open Champion Peter Thomson taking the inaugural title. In recent years the tournament has been dominated by the battle between Indian golf stars Chawrasia and Lahiri.
Both have finished in the top two in their last three starts at the Hero Indian Open. When Chawrasia won in 2016 Lahiri was tied second, while Chawrasia was second when Lahiri triumphed in a play-off to lift the trophy in 2015. This was the first Indian one-two in European Tour history, and the first all-Indian European Tour play-off.
Both players also finished tied second when Siddikur Rahman claimed victory in 2013.
Hero took on the title sponsorship of India’s national open in 2005, and in that time the prize fund has increased by more than six times to US$ 1.75 million. For the past three years, the tournament has been co sanctioned by the European Tour and Asian Tour as part of a Strategic Alliance between the two tours.
THE FIELD
Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello will headline the event after flying direct to Delhi from the WGC-Mexico Championship.
The European Ryder Cup star is joined by in-form Australians Scott Hend, the reigning Asian Tour number one, and Brett Rumford, who claimed his sixth European Tour title with a superb win at the inaugural ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth in February.
Defending champion Chawrasia and a host of past Hero Indian Open winners will tee it up at DLF Golf and Country Club, including all of the most recent winners - former Asian Tour number one Lahiri (2015), Rahman (2013), Thaworn Wiratchant (2012) and David Gleeson (2011).
THE COURSE
This year the tournament moves across the city from Delhi Golf Club to the Gary Player Course at DLF Golf and Country Club.
The venue opened in 1999 with the first Arnold Palmer Signature course in the country. It also hosts India’s first professional Golf Academy.
The par 72 Gary Player Course measures 7,373 yards and became the second course at the venue when it officially opened in October 2015. The scenic parkland design features a dramatic landscape including two large lakes, big land forms, undulating greens and unique bunkering.
Dubbed the ‘Lake Nine’, the opening holes are dominated by water and include an island green on the par three fifth hole. The back nine, known as the ‘Quarry Nine’, is built around a quarry and a large lake with massive rock formations.
The tournament has been played at DLF once before, in 2009, but on the Arnold Palmer Course. The 2017 Hero Indian Open will become the first men’s international event to be played at the Gary Player Course, which also hosted the Hero Women’s Indian Open in 2015.
DID YOU KNOW
- Chawrasia is aiming to make a successful defence of the Hero Indian Open. The last Indian to win their national open in back-to-back years was Jyoti Randhawa in 2006-07.
- Chawrasia has won all three of his European Tour titles in India, the 2008 EMAAR-MGF Indian Masters, 2011 Avantha Masters and 2016 Hero Indian Open. No player has won their first four European Tour events in their home country.
- When Lahiri won the 2015 Hero Indian Open it was his second triumph of the 2015 European Tour season, following the Maybank Malaysian Open. He graduated from the 2014 European Tour Qualifying School and became the fifth player in European Tour history to record multiple victories the season after graduation from the Qualifying School. The previous four were: Gordon Brand Jnr (1982 - two), José María Olazábal (1986 - two), Johan Edfors (2006 – three) and Branden Grace (2012 – four).
- Rumford is looking to win in consecutive appearances after claiming victory in his last European Tour outing at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth. He was the last Australian to achieve this feat back in 2013 when he clinched the Ballantine’s Championship and Volvo China Open.
- The Hero Indian Open was first played in 1964 and won by five-time Open Champion, Peter Thomson. He went on to win the event again in 1966 and 1976. Jyoti Randhawa of India equalled the Australian’s record of most wins, having won in 2000, 2006 and 2007.
