Indian Open: At DGC, it’s a fairway to heaven
At the start of the week, Anirban Lahiri had stressed that if you have a strategy at Delhi Golf Club, you don’t mess with it. On Thursday, Lahiri reminded himself of his own words while walking from the fifth green to sixth tee.
The defending champion had two birdies and two bogeys on the front nine in the first round of Indian Open, and although he racked up two more birdies around the turn, Lahiri failed to consolidate it after missing par on the third and fourth holes. Lahiri used the walk to the sixth tee to clear his head and remind himself to focus on his tried and tested formula. It worked, for he finished with four straight birdies. “I dodged a bullet,” he later said.
And he wasn’t the only one to ‘dodge the bullet’. Most golfers walked back to the clubhouse describing the course as ‘tough’ and ‘unforgiving’. With narrow and firm fairways, dense trees and bunkers sprinkled all around, the Delhi Golf Course gives the golfers very little room for error. The mantra is simple — avoid the trees and keep the ball in play.
Those with past experience here seem to have an advantage over rest of the field, as was evident on the leaderboard. The presence of Indian pros including SSP Chawrasia and little-known Sanjay Kumar in the top five along with unheralded Spaniard Nacho Elvira showed that knowing the course is beneficial.
“I think I learned a lot from last year and having my caddie helped a lot too. The important thing here is to put the ball in play am the right position. You have to be in the right position,” Elvira said.
Because the fairways are extremely narrow, even a momentary lapse in concentration or slightest error in judgement can prove costly, like Mukesh Kumar experienced. Needing to hit the fairway on the 14th hole, Mukesh instead overhit it so much that the ball landed in the ‘jungle’. So instead of a par that he was hoping for on that hole, the veteran was penalised two shots, which pegged him back in the leaderboard.
Quite a golfers faced similar ups and downs throughout the day but the more experienced ones managed to salvage the situation, not allowing the course to cause further damage. USA’s Daniel Im, who grabbed sole lead on Day One, said it was necessary to ‘respect’ the course.
“I’ve heard about this golf course so many times prior to this trip, so I came in with a bit of respect. I showed some respect and got some respect back,” Im, who shot seven-under 65, said.
Although the first day saw quite a few scores in red, England’s Tommy Fleetwood (4-under) believes it might change over the weekend. “This course demands a lot of concentration. There were quite a few low scores today, which is surprising. But I am sure it will change in the next three days,” he said.
