4 min readGurugramUpdated: Mar 27, 2026 08:02 PM IST
As conditions changed rapidly throughout the day at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram on Friday – from a burst of rain to overcast to bright sunshine – the gloom that fell over the Indian contingent competing at the national Open never abated.
Never before in eight previous editions of the Hero Indian Open have as few as only two home players made the cut. But that was the total number of the 30-member strong contingent that managed to do so by the end of a rain-delayed day’s play on Friday, with a handful set to finish their second round early on Saturday.
Defending champion Eugenio Chacarra further strengthened his position to defend his title by emerging with the sole clubhouse lead after another solid day, carding a three-under 69 to leave him at a total score of eight under. With a sensational round of eight-under 64, inclusive of as many as nine birdies, South African Casey Jarvis surged up the leaderboard to take second spot with a total score of seven under, his compatriot MJ Daffue one stroke behind him in third.
With the rain coming in, the greens played much smoother than on Thursday, when the firmness of the surface made scoring tricky. While the slippery slopes narrowed the margin of error, they also helped some low scores for the aggressive-minded golfers, as Jarvis would prove. But the Indians would lose out on the opportunity, slipping further and further out of the reckoning as the day progressed.
The 39-year-old caddy-turned-pro Om Prakash Chouhan came up with a measured round of golf to end his day one-under and leave him at a total score of even par, ending the day at tied-22nd. Manoj S’s two-under par round also allowed him to sneak into the top 60 while their compatriots fell by the wayside.
The 39-year-old caddy-turned-pro Om Prakash Chouhan came up with a measured round of golf to end his day one-under and leave him at a total score of even par, ending the day at tied-22nd. (Credit: Hero Indian Open)
In the six previous editions of this tournament that have taken place on this course, the previous lowest number of Indians to make the cut was seven in 2018, a year in which Shubhankar Sharma finished seventh. Now a DP World Tour regular, Shubhankar slumped further down the leaderboard after carding two-over 74 on Friday, while Veer Ahlawat, runner-up here in 2024 and the best-performing Indian on Thursday, carded six over to tumble to 74th on the leaderboard.
A competitive global field, and a tough golf course, may be among the reasons for the collective poor showing among Indians this week. But neither explains just how few of them could produce competitive rounds of golf over two days. In just as competitive a field, 12 Indians had managed to make the cut last year. Some of the high-profile players struggled to make sense of the famously tricky Gary Player Course. Indian-origin American Akshay Bhatia, the highest-ranked player at World No. 22, just about managed to sneak past the cut score of four over. Familiarity with this course gives an edge in that case – it’s not for nothing that defending champion Chacarra has the clubhouse lead going into the weekend – but the Indians that play here regularly did not manage to take advantage.
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“For me this is like real golf, it’s fun to play around. You need to think your way around, not just try to hit it hard and try to make birdies,” Chacarra said. Those used to teeing off here did not seem to be enjoying it as much as he did.
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