The Delhi Golf Club (DGC) has seen several stalwarts on its tight fairways and tricky greens over the decades, including Tiger Woods for a solitary round with a friend and sponsor.
Last year’s inaugural DP World India Championship brought arguably the biggest star cast India has seen in a competitive setting.
The event is still young, but with Rory McIlroy and defending champion Tommy Fleetwood back in the field, it has made a mark on the DP World Tour, formerly the European Tour.
The field for the second edition includes three of the four Major winners of the 2026 season. McIlroy successfully defended his Masters title at Augusta in April. The others are Open champion Ryan Fox of New Zealand and PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai, the Englishman likely to draw local interest because of his Indian roots.
Justin Rose, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson and Shane Lowry are among the other Major winners competing for a share of the USD 4 million purse. Luke Donald, a former World No.1 who has led Europe to Ryder Cup wins at home and away, is also in the field, along with Ryder Cup player Viktor Hovland and PGA Tour winner Min Woo Lee.
“It’s always fun to play in new events. I’ve heard that the DGC is a great test,” two-time Masters winner Watson said.
The best in the game will be tested by a layout whose challenge doesn’t depend on distance. Trees on both sides of the fairways reduce the margin of error from the tee, and sand and other hazards are used liberally and strategically. Then there are the undulating greens. The DGC cannot be tamed by a gung-ho approach. It demands patience, careful course management and precise execution.
“Just as tight as I remember from last year. It’s definitely a different golf course than what we’re used to playing,” McIlroy said on the eve of the tournament. “It doesn’t offer you a lot of room off the tee, a lot of irons and strategic play with your tee shots.”
“This year, I think the rough is a lot longer and thicker than it was last year, so that’s going to present a challenge,” he added. “But if you’re hitting irons off tees, you shouldn’t really be in the rough. I will be telling myself that tomorrow.”
Indian interest
The tournament comes at an interesting time for Indian golf. A sizeable home contingent is in action. The Indian men’s team finished sixth at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, but Pranavi Urs’s gold and the silver in the women’s team event should add interest in a sport still trying to shed its elitist tag.
Local knowledge is often said to count for something, but the best players usually come out on top. Shubhankar Sharma, Anirban Lahiri and Shiv Kapur will need to do more than rely on their DGC experience. The event also gives the Asian Games trio of Saptak Talwar, Veer Ahlawat and Yuvraj Sandhu an immediate chance to bounce back from the disappointment in Japan.
The DP World India Championship is the penultimate event of the regular season, and it will help decide the field for the play-offs, for which only the top 70 golfers qualify.