When a golf course makes local professionals look like hackers

I make absolutely no apologies for getting back on my sponsors’ invitation soapbox again. DLF Golf & Country Club, home of the Hero Indian Open, is one of the toughest courses tackled all year by the DP World Tour. If you follow the tour you will know that to have any chance of making the 36-hole cut on any given week then you probably need to be getting to two or three under par. Par golf just won’t cut it at this level.

Eugenio Chacarra won the Hero Indian Open in 2025 with a 72-hole total of 284, the highest winning score all year. It is a brutal test and if you win this tournament you know that you have played really well and will probably want to lie down in a darkened room for a while.

This year the cut fell at four over par. Among those who failed to make the weekend was PGA Tour winner Akshay Bhatia. Is it any wonder that the tour now takes an early-season break to allow players to recover?

My view is that we need more courses like this. It tests every shot in the book, and then some more. Casey Jarvis’ 64 in the second round may well turn out to be the round of the year.

Is DLF Golf & Country Club The Hardest Course on Tour?

The original parkland design, by Arnold Palmer, opened in 1999 complete with 15,000 newly planted trees. By 2015, though, the course had a new look and more fearsome feel, thanks to a Gary Player makeover that included nine new holes and a redesign of nine of the original holes. 

The course, which measures 7,600 yards, has two lakes, rock formations, narrow fairways choked by trees and bushes and vast bunkers. And the greens are on a par with Augusta National, featuring mind-boggling slopes. It is an absolute brute and has been described as the most difficult course on the planet.

In 2025, three of DLF’s holes ranked among the 10 toughest holes on the DP World Tour: the 414-yard par-four 14th, which had a scoring average of 4.54; the 535-yard par-four 17th (4.51); and the 446-yard par-four 6th (4.44). Yes, you did read that correctly - the 17th is 535 yards and is a par four!

This is how Player describes his handiwork:

"Our design intent was to create a captivating and memorable golf course that would achieve world-class standards. While the course presents a meaningful challenge, it has been exceptionally well-received by the golfing community.

"The course features an immense amount of variety and strategic interest, highlighted by iconic revetted bunkers, a dramatic rock quarry, a large lake, compelling contouring, and breathtaking vistas. What makes the achievement even more remarkable is that the entire landscape began as flat ground. To transform that blank canvas into 18 holes of championship golf is truly extraordinary. The experience is intentionally thought-provoking, offering a wide range of shot values that challenge players to think strategically throughout the round. Every hole offers something unique, continually engaging the player’s attention from the first tee to the final green."

So will somebody please explain to me what on earth Akshay Sharma, Amardeep Malik and Jairaj Singh Sandhu were doing taking part in this tournament?

Sharma shot an opening round of 89 that featured just six pars, Malik had the same score. He managed nine pars but he had triple-bogeys at the eighth, ninth and 10th and threw in another at the par three 16th. Singh Sandhu? He was the pick of the crop with an 84 that featured triple-bogey eights at the 15th and 18th holes. Between them, they did not manage to record a single birdie.

The good news is that after being bruised and battered for 18 holes, all three realised they were out of their depth and withdrew. But I contend that they should never have been in the field in the first place.

However, Shubham Jaglan chose to plough on. After opening with an 87 he went out on Friday and recorded an 84. After two rounds he was TWENTY-SEVEN over par. That was 35 shots off the halfway lead. He did at least manage three birdies over the two days. BUT…there was a NINE, and eight other double-bogeys or worse.

I simply do not understand who benefits from this. Certainly not the players involved. Not their playing partners. Not the tournament sponsors. And not the fans.

A total of 29 Indian players teed off on Thursday - 27 of them failed to make the weekend.

The time has surely come for sponsor invites to meet some kind of minimum standard. 

At the other end of the field, it looked like Chacarra was going to successfully defend his title. That was until Alex Fitzpatrick produced an extraordinary run on the back nine with birdies at the 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 17th before closing with a double-bogey seven. It all added up to a 69 and was good enough to give him a two-shot win. It was his maiden DP World Tour title.

In the meantime, Chacarra was going backwards and ended up in second place, two shots behind Fitzpatrick after a final round of 75.