The second of two events in Asia, the Indian Open has a long history dating back to 1964, but it has only been co-sanctioned by the European Tour since 2015. In that time, it has been held at Delhi Golf Club in 2015 and 2016 and at this week’s venue, DLF Golf and Country Club, since 2017.

There are two courses at DLF. The Palmer course opened in 1999 and hosted European Tour co-sanctioned events in 2008 (Johnnie Walker Classic) and 2010-2012 (Avantha Masters).

This week’s event is being played on the Player course, which opened in October 2015 and hosted this event in each of the last two years. With no other Tour events played on this course, there is little course history on which to base profitable angles this week.

One thing is clear from the last two years here: this is a very difficult, and perhaps unfair, golf course. Even with the tees brought forward by around 300 yards from the official course yardage and with benign weather conditions, there were only seven players under par in 2017 and 15 players under par in 2018.

It has been remarked elsewhere that, of the 135 players who have made the cut over the last two years, only three managed a week without a double-bogey on their card.

Just as remarkable is the number of players retiring during this event. There have been 25 players who have either withdrawn or been disqualified over the last two years. For comparison, there were eight during the two years beforehand at Delhi Golf Club.

So, it’s a tough course in which length off the tee is not particularly important as the tees are brought forward, but there is still enough from the last two years to identify a couple of pointers to success this week.

Angles to consider

1. Proven winners are better placed to cope with this course

Matt Wallace said last year that ‘every hole is a double bogey waiting to happen’. And that was from the player who won the event; players who didn’t win have been far less generous! With every hole being a severe test of skill and nerve, this is certainly not an easy course on which to win your first Tour event.

The top-two players after rd1 in 2017 were David Horsey and Nino Bertasio. Horsey had already won four times on the European Tour, but failed to break par thereafter. Bertasio hadn’t previously won on Tour and shot 80-76-83 over the next three rounds. Last year, Emiliano Grillo held a four-shot lead after 36 holes. Despite having already won on the PGA Tour, he shot 78-72 over the weekend.

Clearly, having already won on Tour is no guarantee if leading on this course early in the week, but it is very helpful in dealing with the pressure if leading later in the week.

S.S.P. Chawrasia took the lead in rd2 in 2017 and went on to win by seven shots. It is worth noting that he had already won two European Tour events (both in India) and five Asian PGA Tour events before winning in 2017. With his win in 2017, his record in the last four Indian Opens would read 2^nd-2^nd-1^st-1^st.

When Matt Wallace won last year, it was his second European Tour victory, having won the Open de Portugal less than 12 months beforehand. He would win a further two European Tour events in the next six months. He defeated Andrew Johnson in a playoff, who had also won on the European Tour in the previous 12 months (2016 Open de Espana).

2. A player’s short game will be severely tested this week

On such a tough and unforgiving course, the ability to save par or limit the damage to dropping just one shot will be key. In contrast to ‘greens in regulation’ and ‘putts per GIR’ being key on low-scoring courses, ‘scrambling’ and ‘putts per round’ will be key on this high-scoring course.

Chawrasia ranked 1^st in both scrambling and putts per round in 2017 when winning by seven shots. However, last year it was a much closer event. The 2018 winner, Matt Wallace, ranked highly in both categories: 5^th in scrambling and 2^nd in putts per round. In terms of the leading player in each category, Andrew Johnston led the field in scrambling and lost out in a playoff for this title, while Shubhankar Sharma led the field in putts per round and was the joint-leader with Wallace after 54 holes.

Selections

The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following player has been selected.

Anirban Lahiri

The leading home player has been competing full-time on the PGA Tour for the last three years, so he plays in this event around a full schedule in the United States. That isn’t easy, but it shows how important this event is to him and he has made the one-week journey to India and back in each of the last three years and finished 2^nd, 5^th and 34^th.

Last year’s finish was the first time since 2011 that he had finished outside the top-5 in this event, including a win in 2015 when this event was first co-sanctioned with the European Tour. He has won six other events on the Asian PGA Tour, including three in India, so he meets the ‘previous winner’ criteria for success when leading on this course.

He is also in good form having shot the low round of the day on Sunday at the Valspar Championship and that was also a very tricky course which should help with his confidence and mindset this week.

He also has the perfect game for this course. He is far from being a leading player on the PGA Tour (he ranks 144^th on the FedEx Cup race and 141^st in Scoring Average), but he ranks 9^th on the PGA Tour for scrambling and 14^th for putts per round.

The travelling from the United States for this one event suggests that a place-only bet may be the safer option, but he looks a very strong contender this week.

Tips  0-1; -6.00pts

6pts Anirban Lahiri to finish in the top-five 7/2 (Paddy Power, Unibet, Boyle Sports, Betfair Sportsbook and 888Sport)  * 5.4 available on the Betfair Exchange *  mc