DP World India Championship 2025: Course specialist worth chancing at 49/1

• Putting and Scrambling the stats to focus on

• Look to the locals in the top finish markets

• Concentrate on the leaders with 18 to play

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What happened last week? Penge racks up the hat-trick

Pre-event 13.525/2 chance, Xander Schauffele, began the Baycurrent Classic slowly with a level-par 71 around Yokohama Country Club and sitting tied 25^th and four off the lead, he hit a high of 28.027/1 after the opening day.

A much improved eight-under-par 63 on Friday saw him move up into a tie for second behind the clear four-stroke leader, Max Greyserman, and he was trading at 5.59/2 with two rounds to play.

Schauffele and Greyserman were tied for the lead after three rounds and, although Michael Thorbjornsen put in an early run in round four (matched at a low of 2.68/5), Xander was far and away the most likely victor on the back nine. Those who took the odds-against before the final round (myself included), had little to worry about.

Greyserman, who was matched at as low as 2.26/5, went toe-to-toe with Xander for much of the final round but the writing was on the wall when Schauffele birdied the 17^th hole to ease two clear, although Greyserman came close to forcing the most unlikely of playoffs.

Inches from forcing a playoff

Max Greyserman nearly holed out from 182 yards on the final hole @Baycurrent_Clsc. pic.twitter.com/XfgVdEupsQ

-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 12, 2025

Over on the DP World Tour, pre-event 28.027/1 shot, Marco Penge went into the final round of the Open de Espana leading by four and trading at 1.331/3 but a bogey at the opening hole set the tone for the day.

The Englishman, who was in search of his third victory of the year following wins in China and Denmark, never really got going and after he'd bogeyed the par five seventh, it was quite clear that the serene stroll to victory, that looked likely after 54 holes, wasn't going to ensue.

With an unlikely birdie at three and an eagle at four, Dan Brown, who had begun the day trailing by five, emerged as the leader's biggest threat, and although a double-bogey six at the par four fifth halted his progress, he was back to within a stroke when Penge bogeyed the seventh.

Switzerland's Joel Girbach, who was matched at a low of 3.6553/20, threw his hat in the ring with a pair of birdies at eight and nine, but when he and Brown both dropped shots at the 12^th, as Penge notched his only birdie of the day in regulation play, it looked like the Englishman would stroll to victory.

Struggling with a neck injury, and looking likely to withdraw, Brown drifted all the way out to 120.0119/1 but in between bouts of treatment on the course, he birdied the 13^th and 15^th hole to get to within one and when he birdied the last, we were into extra-time.

It was an incredibly courageous run from Brown, who was matched at a low of 2.3411/8, but he couldn't match Penge's birdie three at the first extra hole, so those who had backed him at as short as 1.051/20 in regulation play, were able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Every shot of the playoff between Dan Brown and Marco Penge #OpenEspana pic.twitter.com/2N16YCypIs

-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 12, 2025

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Tournament History

This is the inaugural edition of the DP World India Championship but it's being played at a fabulous and familiar venue, Delhi Country Club, and the field includes the likes of Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Viktor Hovland, so although it's the only show in town this week, with the PGA Tour taking a week off following Xander Schauffele's victory at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan, we're in for a bit of a treat.

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Venue

Delhi GC, New Delhi, India.

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Course Details

Par 72, 6912 yards 

Originally designed by General JH Wilkinson in 1951, and reworked by Peter Thomson in 1977, Delhi Golf Club, which is known locally as the Lodhi, was renovated again in 2019, this time by Gary Player Design.

This is what Jeff Lawrence, the vice president and senior designer of Gary Player Design, had to say about the changes six years ago.

"The redesign at Delhi Golf Club was initially focused on the green complexes. We have implemented new greens designs that will enhance the natural setting while also improving visual aesthetics and strategy."

"The green sizes were increased to add more pinnable areas and strategy to the putting surfaces," said Lawrence. "Our scope of work grew as we progressed into the project. We redesigned all the fairway bunkers, installed a new irrigation system and provided added contouring to some of the fairways. Additional drainage, new cart path routing and tree trimming was also included in the redesign project.

Following the changes, the greens are now MiniVerde Bermuda.

Delhi is a tight tree-lined track and a very exacting test.

Dehi hosted the inaugural edition of the Indian Open in 1964 and it was first used on the DP World Tour when it hosted the single edition of the Indian Masters, won by SSP Chawrasia in 2008.

Prior to Player's reworking, Delhi hosted 12 of 14 editions of the Indian Open, between 2002 and 2016, as well as numerous editions of the SAIL Open and the Panasonic Open on the Asian Tour and since the latest renovation, it's hosted the MP Cup in 2021, two editions of the DGC Open (2022 and 2023), and the Vishwa Samudra Open as recently as December last year.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 07:30 on Thursday.

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21^st Century Course Winners with Stats

Indian Open 2002 - Vijay Kuar -13 (no stats available)
Hero Honda Masters 2003 - Arjun Atwal -7 (no stats available)
Indian Open 2003 - Mike Cunning -18 (no stats available)
Indian Open 2004 - Marden Mamat -18 (no stats available)
Indian Open 2005 - Thaworn Wiratchant -16 (no stats available)
Indian Open 2006 - Jyoti Randhawa -18 (no stats available)
Indian Open 2007 - Jyoti Randhawa -13 (no stats available)
Indian Masters 2008 - SSP Chawrasia -9 (no stats available)
Indian Open 2008 - Wen-Chong Liang -16 (no stats available)
SAIL Open 2010 - Rikard Karlberg -20 (no stats available)
Indian Open 2010 - Rikard Karlberg -11 - DD 12, DA 42, GIR 51, SCR 11 PA 8
Sail Open 2011 - Kiradech Aphibarnrat -16 - DD 23, DA 85, GIR 24, SCR NA PA 7
Panasonic Open 2011 - Anirban Lahiri -13 - DD 4, DA 19, GIR 6, SCR NA PA 43
Indian Open 2011 - David Gleeson -20 - DD 49, DA 27, GIR 5, SCR 4 PA 1
Sail Open 2012 - Anirban Lahiri -14 - DD 11, DA 31, GIR NA, SCR NA PA NA
Panasonic Open 2012 - Digvijay Singh -11 - DD 51, DA 22, GIR 41, SCR 1 PA 1
Sail Open 2013 - Anirban Lahiri -15 - DD 4, DA 25, GIR 9, SCR NA PA 26
Panasonic Open 2013 - Wade Ormsby -9 - (no stats available)
Indian Open 2013 - Siddikur Rahman -14 - DD 33, DA 44, GIR 7, SCR 38 PA 6
Sail Open 2014 - Rashid Khan -18 - (no stats available)
Panasonic Open 2014 - SSP Chawrasia -12 - DD 65, DA 29, GIR 34, SCR 1 PA 2
Indian Open 2015 - Anirban Lahiri -7 - DD 24, DA 44, GIR 45, SCR 31 PA 1
Panasonic Open 2015 - Chiragh Kumar -13 - DD 17, DA 24, GIR 2, SCR 48 PA 3
Indian Open 2016 - SSP Charasia -10 - DD 67, DA 54, GIR 44, SCR 1 PA 1
Panasonic Open 2016 - Mukesh Kumar -10 - DD 39, DA 1, GIR 28, SCR 10 PA 1
Panasonic Open 2017 - Shiv Kapur -17 - DD 13, DA 37, GIR 39, SCR 2 PA 1
Panasonic Open 2018 - Khalin Joshi -17 - DD 4, DA 35, GIR 14, SCR 2 PA 21
Post Renovation Results
MP Cup 2021 - Viraj Madappa -14 - (no stats available)
DGC Open 2022 - Nitithorn Thippong -7- DD 47, DA 36, GIR 2, SCR 37 PA 19
DGC Open 2023 - Miguel Tabuena -12- DD 66, DA 5, GIR 7, SCR 5 PA 20
Vishwa Samudra Open 2024 - Ajeetesh Sandhu -12 - (no stats available)

Stats key
DD - Driving Distance
DA - Driving Accuracy
GIR - Greens In Regulation
SCR - Scrambling
PA - Putting Average

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What Will it Take to Win the DP World India Championship?

The fairways are very narrow here so it would be logical to assume Driving Accuracy would be the key metric but as shown above, the stats don't really bear that out. If they can be relied upon... 

It's quite possible that they've only ever been measuring on one hole a day for many of the events staged here so the driving metrics might not be much of a guide. 

Driving Distance has been slightly more important than Driving Accuracy over the years and that's difficult to believe given the narrowness of the fairways and how much trouble lurks just off them. 

Looking at the list of winners above, the stats that really count here are Putting Average and Scrambling. 

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Course experience is a huge plus

It's now nine years since SSP Chawrasia won the Indian Open here and that was the last time a DP World Tour event was staged at the track so the majority of the field will be playing the course for the first time.

Course form has always stood up here and year after year the same names appear on the leaderboards.

Anirban Lahiri (four times), Jyoti Ranhawa (four times), Chawrasia (three times), Vijay Kumar, and Rikard Karlberg have all won here on multiple occasions and the likes of Ajeetesh Sandu, Rashid Khan, Mardan Mamat and Siddikur Rahman have all won and finished second here.

Lots of players have multiple top five finishes and it's a very nuanced test that some of the locals really relish.

This is a strong field and it's very hard to envisage one of them getting the better of the likes of Rory and Tommy et al, but they may prove worth following in the Top 10 and Top 20 markets at juicy prices.

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Look to Kenya and Belgium for clues

An appearance in last week's Open de Espana around the tricky treelined layout at Club de Campo may prove to be a plus but two events were the trees give a very claustrophobic feel are the Kenya Open and the Soudal Open in Belgium.

Dating all the way back to the 1960s, the Kenya Open has been staged at either Muthaiga or Karen Country Club and both are similar, tight, tree-lined tracks and the Soudal Open has been played at Rinkven International, another similar layout, since 2018.

When the DP World Tour visited this venue regularly around a decade or so ago, form at Fanling, home of the Hong Kong Open, used to cross over nicely, so that's another tree-lined track to consider when searching for clues.

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In-Play Tactics

There have been 34 tournaments played at Delhi Golf Club in the last 30 years and only one of the 34 winners, course specialist SSP Chawrasia, at the 2014 Panasonic Open, has begun the final round sitting outside the top 10.

Chawrasia sat tied for 11^th and five off the lead before the fourth and final round of the Panasonic Open in 2014, but every other course winner has been inside the top six places.

Manuel Tabuena won the DGC Open here two years ago having sat tied for sixth and six off the lead, but he was helped considerably by course specialist, Rashid Khan, who shot 72 in round four having led by three with 18 to play.

As many as eight of the last nine course winners were leading or tied for the lead with 18 to play so it's clearly tough to make up ground here and concentrating on the front runners makes sense.

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Major champ, Harman, should take to the track

Brian Harman is an interesting participant this week.

As demonstrated when winning the Texas Open around TPC San Antonio in April, the 2023 Open winner enjoys a tree-lined test, where length off the tee isn't imperative, and I expect him to enjoy this week's assignment.

We haven't seen Harman since the Tour Championship where he ranked fourth for Putting Average when finishing 13^th so he's well-rested but he was in decent form before East Lake, finishing 10^th in the Open, 22^nd in the FedEx St Jude and 19^th in the BMW Championship.

Harman's Scrambling numbers have been decent all summer, and his steady tee-to-green game should be suited to this tricky test. Odds in excess of 25/126.00 on the Exchange are more than fair.

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Lahiri looks worth chancing

Anirban Lahiri moved to the LIV Golf Tour in September 2022, and he was beaten in a playoff in his very first event.

He's finished runner-up on that circuit six times in total with the latest near miss occurring in Virginia in June.

The closest he came to winning on the PGA Tour was at the Players Championship six months before he moved to LIV, when he was beaten by a stroke by Cam Smith at Sawgrass so it's now 10 years since he tasted success anywhere on the globe, but this offers up a fabulous opportunity for the 38-year-old Indian.

Lahiri's last win came here at Delhi in the Indian Open and as highlighted above, that was his fourth victory here.

It took him a little while to get to grips with the layout and he missed his first four cuts here but since then, he's put up a very impressive bank of form figures that reads 6-1-15-1-8-1-23-2-8-1-2.

He's no bigger than 35/136.00 on the High Street so 50.049/1 on the Betfair Exchange is more than fair.

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