The DP World Tour remains in Asia this week for the final tournament before The Masters which sees the roadshow head to Delhi for the Hero Indian Open, an event which has been around for a while either side of Covid.
Marcel Siem enjoyed the return of the tournament to the schedule last year when he waltzed away with the title but the German is not in the field this week so one thing we know before a ball is hit is that we will have a different champion.
Recent Winners
2023 – Marcel Siem
2019 – Stephen Gallacher
2018 – Matt Wallace
2017 – SSP Chawrasia
2016 – SSP Chawrasia
2015 – Anirban Lahiri
The Course
This tournament returned from Covid a year ago at the same course as it was previously played on so we are back at the DLF Golf and Country Club once again this week. The par 72 track measures one yard more than it did four years ago at 7,380 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. Generally this is a high scoring event and although Siem won on -14 last year, only three players got to double figures under par.
The Field
We are at that stage of the year where those who have a tee time at The Masters are fully underway in their preparations for that tournament which leaves the field this week as one of the weaker we have had this season. As a result, just two players teeing it up in India are inside the top 100 in the world rankings with the lowest of those being number 78 who is Rasmus Hojgaard. The other member of the top 100 is Jordan Smith.
That throws up a great chance for those in the top 20 in the Race to Dubai rankings to make a bit of a move this week. Darius van Driel is actually the highest ranked player in the field at eight while the likes of Matteo Manassero, Aaron Cockerill, Ugo Coussaud, Andy Sullivan, Laurie Canter and Frederic Lacroix are all in the top 20. Shubhankar Sharma and Anirban Lahiri are the standout players looking to pick up the title on home soil.
Market Leaders
Rasmus Hojgaard is the leading player in the field this week both in terms of being the best ranked and also the 14/1 favourite. He was a little bit and miss in Singapore last week and will be tackling the DLF Golf and Country Club for the first time this week as he makes his debut in the competition. Hojgaard tends to be better on the tracks where he can bring his length into play but he has a decent enough all-round game that I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins, especially in this field.
Jordan Smith comes next in the betting at 18/1. He is the second highest ranked player in the field and the second favourite as a result of that. He started out with an eight under 64 last week and you thought he was going to dominate the tournament from there but could only card -1 for the last 54 holes. He is a clean ball striker which is a huge plus but you are taking a real chance that his putter is in decent order. The sheer weakness in the field here keeps me interested in him but that is the only reason I would like him at 18/1.
We have a trio of players who are joint third favourites heading into the tournament. They are Ewen Ferguson, Bernd Wiesberger and Yannik Paul and all can be backed at 22/1 on the best prices. Paul was second behind Siem here last season which will have people interested in him, while Ferguson was T11 in Singapore last week. He is on his debut here though while Wiesberger returned from six weeks off in Singapore with a creditable effort and is likely to come on for the run.
The only other player shorter than 28/1 in the betting is the home star Anirban Lahiri who returns to the DP World Tour this week. He is playing on the LIV Tour these days so he’ll know the importance of going well this week for the world ranking points and the other bonuses that come with it. Lahiri has won this tournament before it came to this course so he doesn’t have a problem winning in front of his own fans so he could be popular at 25/1 too.
Main Bets
Two men jump out at me at the head of the market this week. Ewen Ferguson is one of the better players on the DP World Tour and statistically he looks a fantastic fit for this course. He sits at fourth in fairways hit on the tour this season and 19 for greens in regulation which transfers to 17 in strokes gained from tee to green and that is the overall necessity around here. The Scot has played eight events in 2024 and has only been outside the top 25 once so he is very consistent. He has won twice at this level and won’t have any issues should some breeze come along. He looks a leading contender here.
The other main bet which leaps out at me is Bernd Wiesberger. I highlighted his obvious credentials last week but his first round wasn’t great and he was always playing catch up from there. That first round came after six weeks off though so he probably needed a competitive spin to get up to speed and having had that I would expect him to contend here. Wiesberger had he not been to the LIV Tour for a year would have been the highest ranked player in the field and the class act of it. He has been sporadic in the tournaments he has played this year but the fact that he plays successive tournaments should have him up to speed and he is a perfectly fair price if he is.
Outsiders
There isn’t what I would call any insane value in the outsiders this week but there are a couple of outsiders who tick enough boxes to deliver the goods. Fabrizio Zanotti is the first of those. He has won in Asia before when he won the Maybank Championship in Malaysia a few years ago and he is one of the straight hitters in the game so we know that he is suited to that part of the test. Zanotti sits at 13 in strokes gained from tee to green this season and while that hasn’t yielded the results he would have liked, he did finish last season with a couple of top five finishes so he hasn’t lost the ability to contend. I’m happy to be on him this week.
Matteo Manassero is the other one which catches my eye. He has already won for me this season and there is no reason why he can’t go in for a second time in the space of a month. He is another one who hits the ball straight and clean and if he can get his putter warm again then he should be right in the mix. I said when I put the Italian up for the Jonsson Workwear Open that I thought he was coming back to his best stuff after way too long in the doldrums and he showed it in South Africa. This course sets up nice and a recent winner at 70/1 in a field as weak as this just has to go on my bet slip.
Tips
Back E.Ferguson to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back F.Zanotti to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 76.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back B.Wiesberger to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Betway (1/5 1-7)
Back M.Manassero to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back him here:
