Dec. 1: The early winter sun is at its best, the fairways thickly grassed and the greens running hot — all pointing to an interesting four days of action in the $1.25 million Indian Open that gets rolling at the par-72 Delhi Golf Club here from Thursday.
With five Indian wins in the last 10 years, expectations are high that there will be another home champion to follow up on C. Muniyappa’s dream victory in the 2009 edition of the Open, though that was at the DLF Golf Club in Gurgaon.
Raising the bar further is the presence of India’s first winner on the US PGA Tour. Arjun Atwal. The Kolkata-based golfer, who has had something of a break at home before travelling here in search of a title he last won on home turf at the RCGC 11 years ago has been on a roll though the season and starts as one of the favourites in a field missing quite a few names from the Order of Merit list toppers.
“The course is in great condition. I have never seen greens like these during practice. But if it gets windy, this course can get tricky. A winning score could be anywhere between seven-under to 18-under,” said Atwal, who won the Wyndham Championships on the US Tour this August.
Helping the home challenge is the fact that only the two on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit top-10 are in the field. Bangladesh’s Siddikur stands 8th at the moment and 2005 champion Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand, is 10th. Interestingly, the Thai currently has a Tour-high 12 Asian victories and will be one to watch out for.
Shiv Kapur and Swede Daniel Chopra — who cut his golfing teeth at the DGC as a boy — are also in the mix, though the two have had contrasting seasons. The Orlando-based Chopra has lost his card on the US Tour and was clear about why he had a last-minute dash to be here.
“My aim is to win. Only a win will salvage my season,” he said here on the day. “I started working with a new coach, Mitchell Spearman three weeks ago, and he’s shown me stuff in my golf swing that has taken me by surprise.”
Clearly, a good performance here will come as a massive morale-booster for Chopra, who admitted it was very hard for a golfer to work his way out of a slump.