While the best players in the world are battling it out in match play this week, the European Tour and Asian Tour once again combine for the Hero Indian Open, one of the toughest tests on the calendar of either tour.
Matt Wallace tamed this beast last year and that saw him soar up the rankings to the extent that he is in Texas this week which means we are guaranteed a different winner. A mix of European and Asian stars will look to win this title.
Recent Winners
2018 – Matt Wallace
2017 – SSP Chawrasia
2016 – SSP Chawrasia
2015 – Anirban Lahiri
The Course
One of the reasons why this event is so tough is the difficulty of the DLF Golf and Country Club. The par 72 track may only measure 7,379 yards but if you miss the fairways here you are staring bogey or worse in the face. There are not many tracks where hitting the fairways is as important as it is here.
The rough is so thick here that lost balls are not rare and there is water in play on a number of holes. The greens are huge and full of undulations so accuracy and pure ball striking are very much the order of the day. Players who are not hitting the ball well simply won’t get anywhere near this week.
The Field
We have to acknowledge that with the elite of the game in America for the WGC and The Masters on the horizon we are not going to get a star studded field here but despite that the top end of things looks pretty competitive. Four men in the field are in the top 100 in the world rankings. They are Jazz Janewattananond, Shaun Norris and the Spanish pairing of Adrian Otaegui and Jorge Campillo.
Other notable names teeing it up this week are the home quartet of Anirban Lahiri, SSP Chawrasia, Shubhankar Sharma and Gaganjeet Bhullar while the likes of Aaron Rai, Chris Wood and Andrea Pavan will be among those looking for a decent week in the Indian capital. Last week’s winner Scott Hend is also in the field for this event.
Market Leaders
We have joint favourites at 16/1 this week with the local man Anirban Lahiri looking to win his home tournament while Jazz Janewattananond heads to Delhi in decent form himself. Both men look to have the credentials to go very well around here although the travelling for Lahiri could be an issue. Either way though both are pretty short for a test of this nature so I’m pretty happy to pass them both over at the prices on offer.
Jorge Campillo will tee off as an 18/1 shot and I can only echo what I said last week really. He has never won on the European Tour in some 200+ outings and while he continues to bang the door down it is still showing no sign of opening at any stage it has to be said. His game should go well here but we’ve gone beyond the stage where his game needs to match up well, we need his mentality to and there are few signs that it does.
The other Indian star Shubhankar Sharma comes next in the betting at 22/1. He would love to win his home tournament but he doesn’t come here in the sort of form that he was in last year and could be priced up on his 2018 achievements rather than his 2019 ones. That said, he is at home and we should never rule out home comforts but other offer much better value here.
Two men begin the week as 25/1 pokes. They are Julian Suri and Maximilian Kieffer. Kieffer has been in wonderful form but he wilted badly when deep in contention in Oman a few weeks ago so he is untouchable in my eyes at this price. This track could be a little on the tight side for the American who probably does hit better work on more exposed courses. It is 30/1 bar.
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Main Bets
I’ll go with three main bets this week with the first of them being on the Indian player Gaganjeet Bhullar who putted the lights out of the Kenya Open course a couple of weeks ago and whose tee to green game in Malaysia last week was as good as anything in the field but he couldn’t hole anything. If he can marry the two together he should go very well here and with Indians having a decent record in the event 30/1 seems more than fair to me on a man who has the game for the track.
Paul Peterson was ranked tenth in the field for fairways hit last week and that is a good starting point for this week given that we know he is a wonderful putter. He is one of the best putters in the field actually so if he can dial some irons in he should be in business. The American was right there at halfway last week before he plateaued a little however par golf for the weekend around this place won’t see you going backwards too far. 50/1 is a juicy enough price on a bloke who should have an advantage on the greens.
Me and SSP Chawrasia have a love-hate relationship and after he spunked an enormous lead in this event the year Lahiri won from my side of things the emotion is mostly hate but I’m nothing if not a glutton for punishment and I have to go in on the bloke again at 55/1. It is clear for all to see that he runs hot in his own country. His form in this tournament reads 2 (lost playoff from a country mile clear) 1-1-MC. He offered up a couple of decent rounds last week to prepare for this one and at 55/1 I have to back him as I would hate him winning without my money on again.
Outsiders
Jack Singh Brar has made a wonderful start to life on the European Tour. He was T30 in his first event in Hong Kong but was much higher up the leaderboard until he chased the win rather than the money on the back nine on Sunday and opened up well in both Abu Dhabi and Kenya, the latter where he started with a 64. He has Indian heritage so this will feel like a big week for the Challenge Tour graduate. He won as recently as September at that level and there is no discernible reason why he can’t put up a bold showing here too.
Nobody on the European Tour hits a better percentage of fairways than Siddikur Rahman and he also sits one outside the top 10 on strokes gained putting so if he can find these greens, and given the size of them he might struggle not to, then he should be able to run incredibly hot over the week. He finished in a tie for 15th last week where he registered a showing of third in driving accuracy and in putts per round. That is the perfect combination for this place so 150/1 is a big price.
Tips
Back G.Bhullar to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 31.00 with Betfred (1/5 1-6)
Back SSP.Chawrasia to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 56.00 with Betfred (1/5 1-6)
Back them here:
Back P.Peterson to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back J.Singh Brar to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back S.Rahman to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
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