Indian Open: Campillo chanced on tricky track at 45/1

Indian Open Tournament History 

The Hero Indian Open was first staged back in 1964 and won by Australian golfing legend, Peter Thompson. The tournament was the brainchild of Thompson and he went on to win it twice more, in 1966 and 1976. It became an Asian Tour event in 1970, and it was co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour for the first time in 2015.  

After two years at the intricate and challenging Delhi Golf Course, which now hosts the DP World India Championship, the tournament moved to the Gary Player Course at the DLF Golf and Country Club in 2017 when Shiv Chawrasia made a successful title defence, despite the change in venues. 

Matt Wallace and Stephen Gallacher won the next two editions before the pandemic caused a three-year hiatus.  

It was a German one-two when the tournament returned to the schedule in 2023, with Marcel Siem beating Yannik Paul by a stroke. Japan's Keita Nakajima won the 2024 edition easily by four strokes and he finished runner-up to Spain's Eugenio Chacarra when defending last year.

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Venue 

The Gary Player Course, DLF Golf and Country Club, Gurgaon, India 

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Course Details 

Par 72, 7,416 yards 
Stroke index in 2024 - 75.62

The Gary Player Course only opened in 2015 and we were very much in the dark when the tournament was first staged here. 

With an advertised length of in excess of 7,600 yards it looked far too long for many pros, including the defending champ, Shiv Chawrasia, who is notoriously short off the tee, but they messed about with the yardage by using different tees, ignoring the Championship ones, and by round four it played to just a smidgen over 7,000 yards.  

Chawrasia cruised to a successful defence by seven strokes, leaving many of us confused and angry. How could someone averaging only 280 off the tee win on a course measuring more than 7,600 yards? The answer was simple really - the course doesn't measure anywhere close to that!  

It's a traditional par 72 layout with the standard 12 par fours, four par threes and four par fives. 

The course is entirely Bermuda. The fairways are narrow with some undulation and the greens are large and undulating. 

This is a gimmicky track and danger seems to lurk almost everywhere. 

In the first two editions here, only three players played all 72 holes without making at least one double-bogey and the winner in 2019, Stephen Gallacher, made a quadruple-bogey eight at the seventh in round four.  

Water is in play on seven holes in total - one, five, six, eight, nine, 16 and 18. 

It's a really tough test if conditions are testing and only three players finished under-par 12 months ago.  

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Weather Forecast 

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TV Coverage 

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 7:30 on Thursday (UK time) 

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Last Eight Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices 

2025 - Eugenio Chacarra -4 42.041/1
2024 - Keita Nakajima -17 50.049/1 
2023 - Marcel Siem -14 50.049/1 
2020 - 2022 - No event 
2019 - Stephen Gallacher -9 200.0199/1 
2018 - Matt Wallace -11 (Playoff) 85.084/1 
2017 - Shiv Chawrasia -10 90.089/1 
2016 - Shiv Chawrasia -15 40.039/1 
2015 - Anirban Lahiri -7 (Playoff) 8.07/1 

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What Will it Take to Win the Indian Open? 

No stats were produced for last year's winner, Chacarra, who had been playing his golf on the LIV Tour, but here are the traditional stats for the top-five and ties in all six previous editions of the event staged at the Gary Player Course.  

(Key: DD - Driving Distance; DA - Driving Accuracy; GIR - Greens in Regulation; SC - Scrambling; PA - Putting Average) 

2017 
SSP Chawrasia -10 - DD: 67, DA: 12, GIR: 31, SC: 1, PA: 7 
Gavin Green -3 - DD: 60, DA: 28, GIR: 31, SC: 45, PA: 1 
Scott Jamieson -2 - DD: 16, DA: 7, GIR: 3, SC: 55, PA: 5 
Matteo Manassero -2 - DD: 58, DA: 12, GIR: 10, SC: 7, PA: 43 
Rafa Cabrera-Bello -1 - DD: 21, DA: 41, GIR: 4, SC: 57, PA: 23 
Anirban Lahiri -1 - DD: 11, DA: 49, GIR: 20, SC: 54, PA: 8 
Carlos Pigem -1 - DD: 26, DA: 35, GIR: 1, SC: 44, PA: 13  

2018
Matt Wallace -11 - DD: 16, DA: 8, GIR: 20, SC: 5, PA: 5
Andrew Johnson -11 - DD: 15, DA: 24, GIR: 2, SC: 1, PA: 4
Sihwan Kim -8 - DD: 63, DA: 8, GIR: 5, SC: 2, PA: 33
Pablo Larrazabal -7 - DD: 9, DA: 45, GIR: 17, SC: 28, PA: 32
Matthias Schwab -7 - DD: 11, DA: 8, GIR: 1, SC: 25, PA: 13 

2019
Stephen Gallacher -9 - DD: 33 DA: 49, GIR: 17, SC: 43, PA: 1
Masahiro Kawamura -8 - DD: 11, DA: 59, GIR: 28, SC: 5, PA: 20
Jorge Campillo -7 - DD: 14, DA: 10, GIR: 17, SC: 5, PA: 24
Christiaan Bezuidenhout -6 - DD: 21, DA: 49, GIR: 17, SC: 17, PA: 42
Julian Suri -6 - DD: 2, DA: 49, GIR: 25, SC: 34, PA: 30  

2023 
Marcel Siem -14 - DD: 5 DA: 13, GIR: 2, SC: 44, PA: 12
Paul Yannik -13 - DD: 9, DA: 41, GIR: 1, SC: 1, PA: 25
Joost Luiten -12 - DD: 21, DA: 6, GIR: 4, SC: 19, PA: 11
Jorge Campillo -8 - DD: 7, DA: 9, GIR: 14, SC: 19, PA: 1
Kazuki Higa -8 - DD: 34, DA: 13, GIR: 9, SC: 2, PA: 43  

2024
Keita Nakajima -17 - DD: 17 DA: 45, GIR: 20, SC: 54, PA: 1
Veer Ahlawat -13 - No Stats 
Sebastian Soderberg -13 -12 - DD: 28, DA: 4, GIR: 6, SC: 41, PA: 3
Johannes Veerman -13 - DD: 42, DA: 35, GIR: 1, SC: 3, PA: 46
Gavin Green -12 - DD: 22, DA: 20, GIR: 6, SC: 55, PA: 3 
Jeong Weon Ko -12 - DD: 3, DA: 20, GIR:20, SC: 25, PA: 31
Romain Langasque -12 - DD: 55, DA: 9, GIR: 11, SC: 45, PA: 12
Matteo Manassero -12 - DD: 59, DA: 27, GIR: 52, SC: 9, PA: 11 

2025
Eugenio Chacarra -4 - No Stats 
Keita Nakajima  -2 - DD: 57, DA: 7, GIR: 34, SC: 1, PA: 21
Joost Luiten -1 - DD: 55, DA: 1, GIR: 1, SC: 4, PA: 47
Jens Dantorp +1 - DD: 48, DA: 31, GIR: 19, SC: 2, PA: 13 
Adrien Saddier +2 - DD: 47, DA: 2, GIR: 15, SC: 27, PA: 10

Although a long track on paper, big hitters have only come to the fore in one of the six editions, in 2023.

We don't have any stats for the winner last year, and Chacarra is fairly long off the tee, but looking at the other four to finish inside the top five, Driving Accuracy was more important than distance. 

Greens In Regulation and Scrambling have been key stats and up until last year, a hot putter has been essential. The worst any of the first five winners has ranked for Putting Average is 12th. 

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Is There an Angle In? 

This has been a tough tournament to get to grips with since it moved to DLF.

Up until two years ago, the experienced pros came to the fore but the last two winners have been only 23 and 24, so we can't just blindly plump for the veterans in the field. 

Eddie Pepperell, who was tied for the lead at halfway in 2017, described the course as designed by Satan! Going on to say.  "That's the most stressful three-under-par I think I've ever shot. Not because I played badly. I played really, really well. Literally every shot, something can go wrong. It's going to be a long week mentally more than anything. It's quite a walk and mentally it will be very draining to stay up there, if you're up there the whole week in contention. You've really got to take some pressure off yourself." 

And the 2018 winner, Matt Wallace, had this to say. "Every hole is a double-bogey waiting to happen."  

Anyone getting remotely frustrated with the course could soon find themselves out of contention and an ability to ride the bad breaks and remain on an even keel will be crucial. 

We don't have lots of course form to go on but it's noticeable how many players are building a decent bank of course form.

Chacarra had finished fifth here in the International Series India event on the Asian Tour two months before he beat the defending champion, Keita Nakajima, into second, Japan's Kazuki Higa has finished inside the top five in both his visits, Joost Luiten has course figures reading 11-3-9-3, Jorge Campillo has finished third and fourth here and fellow Spaniard, Pablo Larazzabal has course numbers reading 4-39-10-10.

It's definitely a unique layout, so backing someone that's shown something previously could be the way to go.

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Is There an Identikit Winner? 

The home contingent had a fine record before the venue switch and an Indian has won 12 of the last 31 renewals but it's been a different story since the venue switch and a European has won four of the last five editions. 

The first three course winners were matched at a triple-figure price before the off and the last three winners have gone off at 50.049/1, 50.049/1, and 42.041/1, so it's been a great event for outsiders since the switch in venues. 

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Course Winner's Position and Exchange Price Pre-Round Four 

2025 - Eugenio Chacarra - led by one 4.03/1
2024 - Keita Nakajima - led by four 1.75/7 
2023 - Marcel Siem solo second - trailing by one 3.412/5 
2019 - Stephen Gallacher solo 4^th - trailing by three 20.019/1 
2018 - Matt Wallace -tied for the lead 6.05/1 
2017 - Shiv Chawrasia - leading by two 1.84/5 

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In-Play Tactics 

Nakajima won with ease two years ago, trading at odds-on as early as Friday but this quirky track is perfect for trading in-running and we've seen plenty of drama. 

Although leading by a stroke with 18 to play, Chacarra was matched at 16.531/2  in-running after a poor start to round four last year but he went on to win by two after this amazing break on the 14^th.

Saved by the flagstick

Chacarra chips in for birdie at 14.#HIO25 pic.twitter.com/XLJl7dIq7b

-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 30, 2025

Like Nakajima, Chawrasia also coasted to victory in 2017 with his inexperienced closest challengers wilting on Sunday so that was a very straightforward finish too but we witnessed all sorts of drama in the next three editions... 

Matt Wallace, who was an 80.079/1 chance before the off, drifted to 270.0269/1 in-running, but he looked as though he'd taken control of the tournament going into the back-nine on Sunday and he was matched at a low of 1.182/11 but everything changed in the space of a couple of minutes.  

Wallace hit a poor tee-shot into the rough on the par three 16th and an even worse recovery shot that flew the green and found a nasty spot in the greenside bunker, just as Andrew Johnston birdied the equally tough 17th when trailing by two.  

Wallace was a long odds-on shot to make a double-bogey on 16 so with the tough 17th still to play, it looked like Johnston would play the par five 18th with at least a one-shot lead and the market reacted.   

Johnston was matched at a low of 1.011/100 on the Betfair Exchange for more than £5k!   

That was a nasty case of fat fingers by someone, but he was also matched for plenty at around the 1.21/5 mark - which didn't look ridiculously short given the situation.  

Wallace eventually beat Johnston in extra time but the first two home weren't the only two to trade at odds-on - Emiliano Grillo, who eventually finished sixth, traded at 1.695/7 on Friday morning and we witnessed all sorts of drama in 2019 too.  

The eventual winner, Stephen Gallacher, who had been tied for the lead with Julian Suri after round one, looked like he'd blown his chance a few times. A second round 74 left him with plenty of work to do (seven off the lead at halfway) and he drifted all the way out to over 200.0199/1 when he looked like his chance had gone completely after the quadruple-bogey eight on the seventh hole in round four having had to play five off the tee!  

Suri birdied eight and nine shortly after Gallacher's gaff and the American was matched at just 1.162/13 as he looked to be assuming command, but long-odds-on players got their fingers burnt when Suri made a quad of his own on the ultra-tough 14^th. And that wasn't the end of the market carnage! 

Jose Campillo looked like he was going to benefit from sorry Suri's slip-up but he failed to birdie the par five 18th after a great drive and moments after he'd posted an eight-under-par tournament total, and been matched at just 1.21/5, his score was changed from a six-under-par 66 to a five-under-par 67!  

Japan's Masahiro Kawamura, who hit a low of 2.166/5, salvaged a par at the last having driven out of bounds to finish one in front of Campillo but Gallacher rallied superbly to win by a stroke with birdies at three of the last four holes. 

The 2023 renewal wasn't quite as dramatic but the runner-up, Yannik Paul, led the event by five at halfway and he was matched at a low of 1.618/13 on Sunday. 

It's not at all uncommon to see at least two players trade at odds-on on the DP World Tour and we could very easily see numerous players trade low and get beat this time around too. 

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Campillo chanced at 45/1

As detailed in the Houston Open preview, Matt Fitzpatrick won last week's Valspar Championship a week after trading at long odds-on to win the Players Championship and that was the second time this year that we've seen someone gain redemption just seven days after a near miss.

Jacob Bridgeman won his first PGA Tour title at Riviera last month, just a week after trading at as short as 3.259/4 to win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, so maybe we're due a bounce-back winner on the DP World Tour?

As detailed above, previous course form has been a big plus in this event, so I was more than happy to chance the Hainan Classic runner-up, Jorge Campillo, at 45/146.00 in the Sportsbook's Win Only market given he has course form figures reading MC-3-4-31.

Campillo, who hit a low of 1.558/15 during Sunday's fourth round in China on Sunday, ranked ninth for Driving Accuracy and first for Greens In Regulation, and his Strokes Gained numbers were excellent.

He only ranked 32^nd for Strokes Gained: Around the Green but he ranked seventh for SG: Off the tee, eighth for SG: Putting, fifth for SG: Approach and fourth for SG Tee to Green.

If he can shake off the disappointment of Sunday's defeat, he looks sure to contend here again and 45/146.00 is a great price.

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