I knew that Richard Mansell was a player when I saw him on Jimmy Bullard’s YouTube channel.
2025 DP World Tour/ Asian Tour
Hero Indian Open
The Gary Player Country Club, DLF Golf and Country Club, Gurgaon, India
27th-30th March
The 29-year-old Englishman has suffered through many near-misses on tour, and it felt like it may never happen for him. But he pulled his game together last weekend, winning a rain-affected Porsche Singapore Classic to claim his first title in 104 starts. The tour remains in Southeast Asia this week for the latest edition of the Hero Indian Open. Dating back to 1964, the Indian Open was the brainchild of Aussie golfing icon Peter Thompson. The five-time Open champion won the inaugural staging of this event and would go on to win a further two titles. The DP World Tour ultimately joined forces with the Asian Tour, co-sanctioning the event for the first time in 2015. The pernickety Delhi Golf Course hosted the first two DP World Tour renewals before giving way to the current host course: the Gary Player Course at DLF Golf and Country Club. The pandemic led to a three-year hiatus, but the event returned in 2023, with Marcel Siem holding off Yannick Paul in a keenly contested Germanic affair. Keita Nakajima cruised to victory last year, winning by four shots in a truly dominant wire-to-wire triumph.
The Gary Player Course opened in 2015 and started hosting this event in 2017. Eddie Pepperrell was hilariously quoted as saying the course was ‘designed by Satan’. To put that into context, only seven players bettered par when it was first staged here back in 2019. And that wasn’t down to the advertised 7,600 yardage (the tee-box was shuffled around continuously all week). This Bermuda layout is a brutal test that is full of tournament-ending holes. Despite the advertised yardage, accuracy should prove more beneficial than distance this week (there is plenty of danger outside the confines of the narrow fairways). Water is in play on seven holes and the greens feature considerable undulations- players will need accurate iron play to locate the correct portions of these sizable greens. Scrambling could prove vital this week, with awkward little runoff areas peppering the course. I personally think that putting could prove decisive (Nakajima putted brilliantly last year). Some of these greens are massive and will necessitate some quality lag putting.
Defending champion Keita Nakajima makes for a sensible favourite this week. The Japanese star played beautifully last week, finishing 2nd to first-time champ Mansell in Singapore. It tells you something about the strength of this field that Joost Luiten is 2nd favourite to win at 22/1 (the six-time DP World Tour champ is yet to register a top ten this year). Elsewhere, the likes of Matthew Jordan and Jorge Campillo jump off the page in this very depleted field. It’s almost as if the DP World Tour is in a mini state of hibernation until the conclusion off the upcoming Masters. Be that as it may, there will be some attractive prices amongst the favourites this week.
Past Winners
2024: Keita Nakajima (-17)
2023: Marcel Siem (-14)
2020- 2022: no event
2019: Stephen Gallagher (-9)
2018: Matt Wallace (-11) *playoff
Betting Favourites (To Win): Keita Nakajima (16/1), Joost Luiten (22/1), Matthew Jordan (22/1), Adrien Saddler (25/1), Francesco Laporta (25/1)
Value Bets
John Parry- To Win (40/1)
38-year-old Englishman John Parry is in the midst of a wonderful late-career resurgence. He won three times on the Challenge Tour last year, earning automatic promotion back into top-tier European golf (one of those Challenge Tour wins happened to come in Delhi). He started the 2024/2025 season in excellent fashion, finishing runner-up at Leopard Creek in December. He went on to win in Mauritius and finish runner-up in Kenya. He ranked 7th for Driving Accuracy last week and currently ranks 6th on tour for Bogey Avoidance. He just looks like fantastic value at 40/1.
Adrian Otaegui- To Win (50/1)
Multiple DP World Tour winner Adrian Otaegui could be a nice dark horse pick given his recent form. He missed three recent cuts before an improved 25th place finish in Joburg (where his putter was in a much more cooperative mood). To be fair, he missed all three of those cuts by a single shot. He was accurate off the tee in Joburg and 2nd in SG: Approach. He won in China last May and possesses a sold record at both Valderrama and Le Golf National (both exacting courses that require accurate driving). He has finished 10th and 26th here in the past and he could be one to look out for in the place markets.
The Man to Beat- Matthew Jordan- To Win (20/1)
Englishman Matthew Jordan is yet to win his maiden DP World Tour title, and this week could present him with a fantastic opportunity. Jordan is enjoying a fine run of form, following up a T10 at the Qatar Masters with a T6 finish in Singapore. He finished T13 here last year and currently ranks 15th in Putts per GIR.
