DP World India Championship tournament history
This is only the second edition of the DP World India Championship.
Tommy Fleetwood won the inaugural edition 12 months ago and he returns to the Delhi Country Club to defend his title alongside some of the biggest names in golf.
The PGA Tour's Fall Series is taking a week off, so this is the only show in town but with the likes of Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry, the US PGA Championship winner, Aaron Rai, and the Open winner, Ryan Fox, all in the line-up, around a fabulous layout, we're in for treat.
Venue
Delhi GC, New Delhi, India.
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 seven 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 in the last two years.
Weather forecast
TV coverage
Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 06:30 on Thursday.
2025 result with stats
(Key: DD - Driving Distance; DA - Driving Accuracy; GIR - Greens in Regulation; SC - Scrambling; PA - Putting Average)
Tommy Fleetwood -22 - DD: 30, DA: 8, GIR: 11, SC: 9, PA: 11
Keita Nakajima -20 - DD: 40, DA: 61, GIR: 25, SC: 7, PA: 2
Thriston Lawrence -18 - DD: 1, DA: 46, GIR: 11, SC: 45, PA: 11
Shane Lowry -18 - DD: 12, DA: 30, GIR: 11, SC: 9, PA: 7
Alex Fitzpatrick -18 - DD: 43, DA: 27, GIR: 28, SC: 5, PA: 10
Other 21st 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, SC 11 PA 8
Sail Open 2011 - Kiradech Aphibarnrat -16 - DD 23, DA 85, GIR 24, SC NA PA 7
Panasonic Open 2011 - Anirban Lahiri -13 - DD 4, DA 19, GIR 6, SC NA PA 43
Indian Open 2011 - David Gleeson -20 - DD 49, DA 27, GIR 5, SC 4 PA 1
Sail Open 2012 - Anirban Lahiri -14 - DD 11, DA 31, GIR NA, SC NA PA NA
Panasonic Open 2012 - Digvijay Singh -11 - DD 51, DA 22, GIR 41, SC 1 PA 1
Sail Open 2013 - Anirban Lahiri -15 - DD 4, DA 25, GIR 9, SC NA PA 26
Panasonic Open 2013 - Wade Ormsby -9 - (no stats available)
Indian Open 2013 - Siddikur Rahman -14 - DD 33, DA 44, GIR 7, SC 38 PA 6
Sail Open 2014 - Rashid Khan -18 - (no stats available)
Panasonic Open 2014 - SSP Chawrasia -12 - DD 65, DA 29, GIR 34, SC 1 PA 2
Indian Open 2015 - Anirban Lahiri -7 - DD 24, DA 44, GIR 45, SC 31 PA 1
Panasonic Open 2015 - Chiragh Kumar -13 - DD 17, DA 24, GIR 2, SC 48 PA 3
Indian Open 2016 - SSP Charasia -10 - DD 67, DA 54, GIR 44, SC 1 PA 1
Panasonic Open 2016 - Mukesh Kumar -10 - DD 39, DA 1, GIR 28, SC 10 PA 1
Panasonic Open 2017 - Shiv Kapur -17 - DD 13, DA 37, GIR 39, SC 2 PA 1
Panasonic Open 2018 - Khalin Joshi -17 - DD 4, DA 35, GIR 14, SC 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, SC 37 PA 19
DGC Open 2023 - Miguel Tabuena -12- DD 66, DA 5, GIR 7, SC 5 PA 20
Vishwa Samudra Open 2024 - Ajeetesh Sandhu -12 - (no stats available)
Vishwa Samudra Open 2025 - Yuvraj Sandhu -14 - (no stats available)
A statistical look at 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 Tommy Fleetwood, who ranked eighth, was the only player inside the top five to rank any better than 27th and as shown above, the stats at other events here suggest accuracy off the tee is largely irrelevant, if they can be relied upon...
It's quite possible that, prior to last year, 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.
Course experience is a huge plus
It's now 10 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 prior to last year's inaugural edition of this event.
Course form has always stood up here and year after year the same names appear on the leaderboards.
Jyoti Randhawa (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.
It's going to be tempting to look closely at the Indians with lots of course form but none of them finished inside the top 30 last year so we might be better off concentrating on anyone that contended 12 months ago instead.
Courses that may provide 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.
Only five players that finished inside the top 10 in India had teed it up in Spain the week before and Shane Lowry, who shot rounds of 75 and 68, was the only one of the five to miss the cut at Club de Campo. He finished tied third here after his weekend off in Spain.
Daniel Hillier, who finished tied ninth in India, had only finished 23rd in Spain but he'd sat 11th with 18 to play, and Joost Luiten, who finished tied sixth here, had finished 16th in the Open de Espana, but two men played nicely in both events...
Jayden Schaper finished tied for fifth in Spain and sixth in India and Alex Fitzpatrick followed his tied ninth in Spain with a tied third here.
In addition to last week's tournament, 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 a decade 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.
Concentrate on the pacesetters
There have been 36 tournaments played at Delhi Golf Club in the last 30 years and only one of the 36 winners, course specialist SSP Chawrasia, at the 2014 Panasonic Open, has begun the final round sitting outside the top 10.
Chawrasia sat tied for 11th 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 three 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.
Fleetwood had sat solo second and two behind Keita Nakajima 12 months ago but nine of the last 11 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.