Circa 2017. A large gallery has gathered on the 10th hole of the DLF Golf & Country Club to follow Italian star Matteo Manassero. The 23-year-old—already a four-time winner on the European Tour—is known for his precision and course strategy. The challenging Gary Player layout—a striking departure from the event’s favourite venue (the Delhi Golf Club)—is hosting the national open for the very first time.
High winds on the opening day coupled with the exceptionally tricky greens have made things unpredictable and the course draws first blood against Manassero: two strokes on the opening hole. Suitably chastised, Manassero steadies the ship, and drops seven birdies en route to a creditable four-under 68 to lead the field.“You have to be always in play, otherwise, there will be a lot of doubles. It is very easy to lose shots on this course,” Manassero remarks after his first competitive outing on the course. Seeking to break a winless streak since his career-defining triumph at the 2013 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, Manassero fails to break par again that week and finishes tied third at the 2017 Hero Indian Open. That fifth win will have to wait.
At the time, no one, least of all Manassero, would have had an inkling just how long that elusive fifth win would take. Over the ensuing years, Manassero’s results dried up and the once 25th-ranked player in the world plummeted as far down as 381 in the world rankings. Rock bottom came when he lost his full playing rights on the DP World Tour.
Circa 2024. 11 years after his last win, Manassero, now 30 years old, fires a career-best 61 and goes on to win the Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa. After clawing his way back to the main tour after a season on the second-tier European Challenge Tour, Manassero’s comeback is officially on track. Two weeks after what he describes as ‘the best day of my life on the golf course,’ Manassero finds himself at a familiar place—clubhouse leader after the opening round of the Hero Indian Open at the DLF G&CC. This time around he gives no quarter to the course, compiling a neat seven-under bogey-free round, and then following it up with a four-under 68 to lie tied third going into the weekend trailing Japan’s Keita Nakajima by three strokes.
What can one say about Nakajima? The Japanese prodigy who ruled the world amateur rankings for an astonishing 87 weeks, a two-time gold medallist at the Asian Games, and who won the Panasonic Open on the JGTO (Japan Golf Tour) as an amateur, is already a superstar in his country. In his rookie season on the DP World Tour Nakajima has continued to flabbergast not just the gallery but his fellow pros. “I was thinking how good was he playing (for Nakajima to be six shots clear at one point on the second day) because I have been playing really good and I must have been so far behind. Fair play to him,” Manassero said after the second day’s play.
Nakajima’s best finish on tour has been fourth at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship, but he certainly has plenty of experience closing out tournaments. “I’m comfortable,” he said after the second day’s play. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
At the time this column is being written, the third round of the 2024 Hero Indian Open is underway. Nakajima and Manassero, playing together, have both picked up three and two strokes to lie at 17-under-par and 13-under par respectively. At the 2017 Hero Indian Open Manassero couldn’t catch SSP Chawrasia who successfully defended his title. That edition was the third consecutive Indian Open won by an Indian (Anirban Lahiri won in 2015). That was also the last time the trophy stayed at home. As things stand now, Veer Ahlawat is leading the local challenge, followed closely by Manu Gandas with Shubhankar Sharma trailing further back. The trio are the only Indians with an outside chance of making a charge.
It’s no small testament to the fickle nature of the DLF G&CC that it’s nigh impossible to predict how things are going to pan out. More than anything else, it’s the fear of shooting a really big number on a hole that has kept most pros (Nakajima being an exception) somewhat tentative and conservative in their play. Consider the curious case of Norwegian Espen Kofstad. After carding a dismal 81 in the first round Kofstad had booked his return flight, realistically not expecting to make it to the weekend.
It’s a fair conjecture that with the pressure of making the cut gone, Kofstad swung freely and without fear in his second round. In any case, the birdies just kept dropping—three to start with, and six more to get to eight under on the day after 15 holes. Needing one more to break Shubhankar Sharma’s course record of 64 Kofstad dropped an eagle on the eighth hole to card an astounding ten-under 62. That’s a new course record and his lowest round on Tour by two shots. And that, at a course considered one of the most difficult on the DP World Tour. It really is anyone’s game on Sunday. Go figure.