4 min readGurugramMar 28, 2026 07:28 PM IST
Earlier this week, responding to a list of questions from golf.com, Gary Player, who designed the course at the DLF Golf and Country Club that is hosting the ongoing Hero Indian Open, called his layout a ‘meaningful challenge.’ “The experience is intentionally thought-provoking… Every hole offers something unique, continually engaging the player’s attention from the first tee to the final green,” he wrote.
On Saturday, defending champion Eugenio Chacarra left the course with one hand on the trophy. Carding a two-under 70 on another measured day’s play, capitalising on his tendency throughout the week to minimise mistakes, left him with a four-stroke lead at the top of the leaderboard. Just about everybody else in the title reckoning was left disappointed, proving just how much Player was downplaying the devilishness of his design.
With two lakes, narrow fairways and firm greens, the brutality of the conditions here is represented in the scorecards. 14 different players scored 80 or more at this par-72 on Thursday and Friday each. The highest-ranked player in the field, the Indian-origin American Akshay Bhatia, was left signing autographs outside the clubhouse after failing to make the cut. The third and fourth-highest-ranked players joined him in skipping the weekend, as did 27 of the 30 Indians who teed off at this course they play on regularly. On Saturday, Chacarra was the only member of the top 5 after Friday to improve his score.
Chacarra believes the fallacy is trying to visualise scoring opportunities before reaching the green. (Hero Indian Open)
It is one of the idiosyncrasies of India’s national Open – taking place in this posh suburb outside the capital, inside a country club meant to be the central showpiece for surrounding residential real estate often sold for eye-watering, headline-making rates – that it is held at a course of such global infamy. But none of the familiar afflictions has impacted Chacarra. Across seven rounds of golf, one year apart, the Spaniard has reduced missteps to a degree that few others have managed. So what is the secret?
Chacarra believes the fallacy is trying to visualise scoring opportunities before reaching the green. Instead, it’s about making the fewest mistakes getting there, something that suits his solid game. “You have to reduce mistakes and play smart,” he said after his round on Saturday. “Off the tee, you have to be good. You need to make it to the fairways because when you go into the roughs, you are penalised a lot.”
At 10-under, the 26-year-old, whose only tour-level victory was here last year, is four shots ahead of South Africa’s MJ Daffue and England’s Alex Fitzpatrick. Germany’s Freddy Schott and Scotland’s David Law are another stroke behind. All will need a slip up from Chacarra – the kind he has not made all week – to have a chance.
That puts him within touching distance of a small piece of history. While India’s SSP Chawrasia won back-to-back editions of this tournament as a DP World Tour-level event, the first of his wins in 2016 came at the Delhi Golf Club. Victory on Sunday, for which the Spaniard is now heavily favoured, would make him the first to win two in a row at DLF.
Story continues below this ad
“I love this course, and I love the people here. I feel right at home. Even though I am four shots ahead, over here, that lead could vanish within a few holes. It would mean the world to win tomorrow. Even more because I have done it twice on this course,” he said.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
