New Delhi, India, March 27: Olle Nordberg provides his insights from the front lines ahead of the Hero Indian Open which enters its 55th edition this week.

By Olle Nordberg, Former Asian Tour and European Tour professional 

The Hero Indian Open has been played at the DLF Golf and Country Club’s Gary player course in Delhi for the last two years, and it has proven to be a real challenge for the best players in the region and from Europe. In 2018 only 15 players finished the event under par, and in 2017 only seven players managed to end up in red numbers on Sunday afternoon.

The 2018 edition saw Matt Wallace capturing the trophy by beating Andrew Johnston in a play-off on the first extra hole after an 11-under-par total of 277. It was the first of his three European Tour victories last year, a season in which he finished a career best 10^th on the Race to Dubai.

The previous year S.S.P Chawrasia cruised to a seven-shot win over nearest challenger Gavin Green of Malaysia, as he defended the title he had won at Delhi Golf Club in 2016. He also became only the third player in history to successfully defend this national open, with a winning score of 10-under-par 288.

Last year’s champion Wallace is competing in the WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay this week and is unfortunately not here to defend his title, but there are a number of players in good form looking to capture the championship on Sunday afternoon.

• Jazz Janewattananond

The highest-ranked player in the field at number 71 on the OWGR list and coming off yet another great event at last week’s Maybank Championship finishing third, the eighth top-ten finish in his last 12 events going back to the end of September last year. He started the year off in fantastic fashion with a win at the SMBC Singapore Open and had a fourth-place finish at the 100^th New Zealand Open a few weeks prior to Malaysia.

• Shubhankar Sharma

Sharma had a good chance to win this event on Sunday last year when he was tied for the lead with Matt Wallace after three rounds. Birdies in two of his first four holes in the final round meant he was off to a flying start, however double-bogies on the fifth and seventh hole derailed his bid for his first home Open title.

He will definitely be looking for redemption this time around.

• Scott Hend

The champion last week at the Maybank Championship is obviously playing well and making a lot of birdies as well. He led the field in number of birdies made with 25 during the week in Kuala Lumpur, and if he can continue this trend he might be challenging for the trophy again this week.

Hend has missed the cut at DLF the last two seasons but the confidence he would have gained from last week’s win should be a great asset. It is certainly something you need to have playing this course.

Going though the statistics from last year’s Hero Indian Open at DLF, an important factor is a player’s Tee to Green performance. If this remains true this year, the players below would rank highly in a statistic combining Total Driving and GIR category for 2019, and may be contending for the title on Sunday afternoon:

• Gaganjeet Bhullar (Tee to Green #2)

One of the best all around players on the Asian Tour in 2018, proven by his win in very windy conditions at the Fiji International. Would currently be ranked number two in an un-official TD/GIR statistic this season. Finished fourth in the Habitat for Humanity Standings last year.

• Gavin Green (Tee to Green #3)

The 2017 Order of Merit Champion did not play a full schedule on the Asian Tour in 2018 but is performing well in the statistic this season. He has played well at DLF in the last two editions of this event, finishing second in 2017 and tied 16^th in 2018, and seems to have figured out how he likes to play the course.

• Johannes Veerman (Tee to Green #8)

Veerman was ranked number 16 in Tee to Green last year and has improved on this in 2019 up to number eight curently. He finished fourth last week in Malaysia and tied 16^th in Kenya the previous week, so is obviously in good form overall as well.

• Scott Vincent (Tee to Green #11)

A very good all-around player that already has a top result in 2019, finishing fourth in the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth. Vincent has improved his ranking in Tee to Green from 20^th in 2018 to 11^th this season, and this may be important this week. Finished fifth on the Habitat for Humanity Standings last year in a season with nine top-10 finishes that included three runner-ups.