It’s the week of the Indian Open and there is always a lot of excitement and anticipation for this tournament among Indian fans and players.
And, with the elevated status of the tournament, now that it is co-sanctioned by the European Tour along with the Asian Tour for the first time, there is more at stake than ever before.
The Indian Open, an annual match that was first played in 1964, is now in its 51st edition and is one of the oldest tournaments in Asia. It has provided Indian golf some of its most heroic and unforgettable moments, including the victory of amateur Billoo Sethi in 1965, when he defeated a quality field that featured the incomparable five-time Open champion Peter Thompson.
That win, obviously, was long before I was even born, but we grew up hearing about the legendary exploits of Sethi. When I played my junior golf at Delhi Golf Club, it felt like every member I met was personally there watching him win the tournament.
After Sethi, there was a long drought without a home winner, before Ali Sher, one of the gutsiest golfers ever produced by India, won it twice in 1991 and 1993. It was those two wins that actually started the golfing revolution in the country.
Sher was a caddie-turned-professional like Seve Ballesteros, and I am sure that if he got the required exposure early in his life, he could have become almost as legendary as the Spaniard. He still plays on the Indian Tour circuit, but in the early 1990s he had a short game that would have been the envy of some of the leading players in the world at that time.
Since then, a lot of Indian players have won the tournament and the days when they did not even contend for the title are well and truly gone.
This year, the tournament returns to Delhi Golf Club, and if you haven’t had a look at this magnificent old-style golf course you have got to switch on the TV during the tournament.
The golf course is dotted with Mughal-era ruins, which give it a distinct character, but what really stand out are the bushes that line the fairways. This is a golf course where only the brave, or the foolish, resort to the driver. Most holes are relatively short, but you have got to hit a wood or iron off the tee. If you can escape without getting into the bushes on all four days, you will be relatively well placed in the tournament.
Among the Indian players to watch out for is Anirban Lahiri, who recently won the Malaysian Open, which means he is in good form, and has a fantastic track record at Delhi Golf Club. Shiv Kapur is another player with immense local knowledge, while SSP Chowrasia loves showing his magic on this particular track.
But there are many other players from the Indian domestic tour who will be eager to showcase their skills. Several of them are capable of winning and, if they do, their lives will forever be changed as it would earn them a two-year exemption on the European Tour.
— Jeev Milkha Singh is a four-time champion on the European Tour
