When golf’s European Tour — or the DP World Tour, because it has been identified for the previous 4 seasons — introduced its last schedule for the latter a part of 2025, New Delhi was strategically positioned inside the general scheme of issues.
Introduced on April 23 this 12 months, the DP World Tour India Championship rapidly grabbed consideration inside the nation’s {golfing} group and past for a number of causes — together with the best prize cash ever for an occasion within the subcontinent and India’s second occasion on the European Tour after the marquee Indian Open.
Its timing additionally stood out: scheduled in the direction of the tip of the 12 months, it aligned completely with the nationwide capital’s early winter and festive season, whereas serving because the penultimate occasion within the Race to Dubai season finale. The week of October 13–19 proved that, regardless of all the pieces, big-ticket sporting occasions will at all times appeal to crowds and a spotlight in India. Englishman Tommy Fleetwood took house the trophy and 834 rating factors, catapulting him to twenty fifth within the Race to Dubai — a exceptional leap of 69 locations. His victory is proof that greater than an enormous identify or a strong recreation, it was endurance and consistency that held the important thing to success on one of many Tour’s shortest programs. The Lodhi Course on the Delhi Golf Membership (DGC), revamped in 2019, measures simply 6,912 yards.
A part of the Tour’s ‘Again 9’ sequence, which gives considerably larger rating factors than common occasions, the $4 million DP World India Championship was headlined by arguably the best European golfer of all time, Rory McIlroy, and featured a number of of the game’s largest names.
It additionally drew one of many largest crowds seen on the historic DGC lately. The final time the venue — positioned within the coronary heart of town and regarded among the many most difficult within the nation, dotted with 14th–fifteenth century tombs and monuments from the Lodhi Dynasty — witnessed such a turnout was in 2014, when then World No. 1 Tiger Woods stopped by for a sponsored exhibition match. The stakes this time had been far larger, and so had been the numbers following the likes of Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, and naturally, McIlroy, over 4 days throughout the 18 holes.
“It’s fairly difficult. You’re actually simply attempting to be as conservative as doable off the tee after which attempting to choose off birdies on the par fives and possibly a pair extra. It’s a difficult golf course — you simply should get the ball within the fairway. The tough is unpredictable. Possibly being rather less aggressive with strategy pictures and getting it on the proper aspect of the pin,” stated McIlroy. The Irish World No. 2 — one in all solely six males with a profession Grand Slam and the reigning Masters champion — completed tied twenty sixth, struggling on a course that, by common consensus, is a throwback to older instances when accuracy was at a premium and brute energy had little to contribute.
Dismal present: European nice and World No. 2 Rory McIlroy struggled on the Delhi Golf Membership’s Lodhi Course, ending the event tied for twenty sixth.
| Picture Credit score:
AP
Dismal present: European nice and World No. 2 Rory McIlroy struggled on the Delhi Golf Membership’s Lodhi Course, ending the event tied for twenty sixth.
| Picture Credit score:
AP
Shane Lowry, a six-time winner on the Tour with three PGA victories and one of many few huge names to have performed on the DGC earlier than, echoed the sentiment. “I’m so excited to get on the market and take it on this week. It’s form of refreshing to be enjoying a course like this. We play so many now the place you simply hit the driving force on each gap with out pondering. That is an old-school course — it’s very tight off the tee and pleasurable to play,” he stated. Lowry used that familiarity to his benefit, taking the lead on Day 1 with a formidable seven-under-par 65 earlier than errors pulled him again.
Fleetwood’s expertise was related. He carded a formidable 64 on Day 2 earlier than succumbing to the slim fairways, tree-lined bushes and unpredictable greens. The final time Fleetwood performed on the DGC, in 2016, he was ranked 82nd on this planet with only one DP World Tour win, earned three years earlier. 9 years on, he’s a seven-time Tour winner, a four-time Ryder Cup participant, and this 12 months broke by way of on the PGA Tour for the primary time — changing into solely the third man in historical past to win each the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai.
“I feel the course is so good — you possibly can have a particular technique for a way you wish to play it. I can’t think about many individuals doing it, however you will be as aggressive as you need, actually, by way of the golf equipment you’re hitting off the tee. General, you need to preserve the ball in play, keep affected person and be strategic. I actually like that about golf programs once we get to play these,” Fleetwood stated.
Tour sponsor DP World’s Deputy CEO and CFO, Yuvraj Narayan, insisted the occasion wouldn’t be a one-off spectacle. “Each sport wants a set off to seize individuals’s creativeness. The DP World India Championship is strictly that. When younger Indians see Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood or Viktor Hovland competing on their house soil, it crops the seed for a lifelong reference to the sport. We consider golf is able to take its place on the Indian sporting stage,” he declared.
The occasion, co-sanctioned by the Skilled Golf Tour of India (PGTI), additionally has its president, cricketing legend Kapil Dev, satisfied that India stands on the cusp of a {golfing} revolution. “It’s a mirrored image of our rising stature. Over the previous 50–70 years, any nation that has achieved effectively economically has additionally achieved effectively in sport — that may’t be a coincidence. The DP World India Championship is a landmark second for Indian golf and a real reflection of India’s rising stature on the worldwide {golfing} stage,” Kapil stated.
He agreed it was an excellent alternative for native expertise to be taught from the perfect. “You received’t get a greater alternative to be taught for those who’re an Indian golfer enjoying right here. I’ve been watching Tommy and Rory significantly intently — one factor our boys can be taught is their focus. These guys by no means waver, by no means hand over,” he stated.
Revealed on Oct 24, 2025