The Asian Tour retains co-sanctioning rights with the European Tour for the second week in succession this week when the two combine to stage the Hero Indian Open, the second staging of the tournament.
Last year’s event was fascinating as players battled a tough golf course and much to my disappointment at the time a standout player came out on top in the shape of Anirban Lahiri.
Despite having his PGA Tour card, Lahiri returns to defend the title and begins the week as a 15/2 favourite to do it successfully. He will have to defend against a much stronger field than he won against last year though.
Such is the necessity for world ranking points to try and qualify for the Masters a number of eye catching players are turning out this week. Joost Luiten is one of them and he is 14/1 to land the title. Malaysia winner Marcus Fraser is back for more and is 18/1 with Peter Uihlein 22/1. Brett Rumford is 25/1 and it is 28/1 bar with the bigger prices including players like Tommy Fleetwood and Padraig Harrington.
They will all be looking to master Delhi Golf Club again. This treelined course puts plenty of pressure on the tee balls because if you end up in the trees you’re a bogey or worse waiting to happen. With that in mind a number of players are talking of taking the driver out of the bag completely this week.
It is all about position off the tee and then attack the greens from the fairways. The greens are small and often firm so you need a good short game too so this is a course that tests all parts of the game and a course where length is no advantage.
The course is a par 72 which only measures 6,983 yards so plenty of irons will be struck this week which should make a refreshing change from the bombers paradise that was Thailand last week.
We saw last year how this is a course which past experience is key. Sticking with who I backed the year before did me well last week and by and large I’m going to keep with the same plan this week with one or two tweaks.
My main pick is a form horse which is Marcus Fraser. He won in Malaysia last month and did so in style with a fine exhibition of putting and iron play. He was only a shot outside the playoff last year when he was playing shortly after a return from injury so it might have been that only a lack of competitive action got the better of him.
That clearly isn’t going to be the case this week. He is up to speed this season. Not only his win in Malaysia was impressive but on a golf course he had no right to be competitive on at Doral a couple of weeks ago he led after the first round. That shows how well he is hitting it and at 18/1, admittedly in a tidy field, he looks the value at the head of the betting.
I remain convinced that Jason Scrivener is going to go in on one of these events soon and he’s an acceptable price to pay to see if this is the week. Very few hit the ball as sweet as him off the tee and he’s pretty solid into the greens too. Putting can sometimes he an issue but these greens are very small so there won’t be monster putts or anything like that.
Scrivener was third in Hong Kong at the end of last year and he was third in Australia a couple of weeks ago so he tends to run well in the humid conditions which is a positive this week. As I say I think he’s a winner in waiting and I’ll see if that is this week.
I’m going to throw a few quid at a few big prices this week. That tactic served me well last week and there’s no reason around here why it can’t be successful again this week too.
First of all I’ll go back to a man I took in this tournament last year, the course specialist Siddikur Rahman. Rahman loves it around here. He won this event in 2013 and in his last 13 starts here he has finished in the top 10 on 11 occasions. That is crazy course form.
He went into the final round in second place last year and while the going was a bit tough for him I don’t think standing around watching SSP Chawrasia hacking his way around the place did him any good. Hopefully if he’s in contention this week he gets a better final round draw but his course form simply can’t be ignored so I’m on Rahman again this year.
Chiragh Kumar is attached to this golf course so he will know every inch of it which is no bad thing. One of the reasons why he goes well here apart from local knowledge is a wonderful tee to green game and I expect to see him contend this week.
But for an indifferent third round in Thailand last week he would have finished much closer to the frame but we saw during his win in the other tournament in India last year and his second placed finish in Macau that he is warming to the task at this level and on his home course he’s overpriced this week.
Finally I’m going to take a chance on Gregory Havret. The Frenchman is just outstanding from tee to green and on a course like this that has to serve him well. Sometimes he can get outbombed by the big hitters but that won’t be the case this week.
For me how well he goes will come down to how well he putts. His putting stats were excellent in Thailand last week but he was never going to be long enough to mix it with the hitters on show there so a top 10 finish was a mighty fine effort. A repeat of that this week should have him right there.
Back M.Fraser to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 19.00 with Coral (1/4 1-5)
Back him here:
Back J.Scrivener to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with BetVictor (1/4 1-5)
Back S.Rahman to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-5)
Back G.Havret to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 111.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-5)
Back them here:
Back C.Kumar to win Hero Indian Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Ladbrokes (1/4 1-5)
Back him here:
