Lack of international success worrying sign for Indian golf: Bhullar
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India, Jan. 30 -- While Indian golf's focus this week is on the incredible star power that has assembled at Gurugram's DLF Golf and Country Club for the season's first International Series, a minor but significant detail runs the risk of being brushed under the carpet. As many as 15 Indians, including the likes of Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma, are competing in the Asian Tour tournament here, but only four Indians -- Rahil Gangjee, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Yuvraj Sandhu, and Ajeetesh Sandhu -- have earned the full season card for the continental tour. By contrast, year 2024 saw 11 Indians competing on the Asian Tour.
With 11 titles on the Asian Tour, Bhullar knows a thing or two about winning. Having spent close to two decades on the continental tour, the 36-year-old feels Indian golf is going through a slide. "I think Indian men's golf is going through a worrying slump and we need to do something about it," he said.
Into his 19th year on the tour, he reckons 2025 will be the first time when less than five Indians will be competing on the Asian Tour.
"It is truly unfortunate. We need more Indians to play on the Asian Tour. This year, there are only two of us in top 60 (Bhullar and Yuvraj), which is not a good sign for Indian golf. This is my 19th year on tour and I've never seen a single year when there were less than five Indian guys on the tour. It's happening for the first time and it's surely not a good sign," he lamented.
With Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) having entered into a strategic agreement with PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the focus seems to have moved outside Asia. Thanks to the deal, PGTI Order of Merit winner now gets to play on the European tour for the next season, ensuring the likes of Manu Gandas (2023), OP Chouhan (2024) and Veer Ahlawat (2025) have experienced the rigours of the challenging tour.
After breaking the PGTI record for season's earnings in 2024, Ahlawat began his European Tour journey with a missed cut at $9mn Hero Dubai Desert Classic and a tied-27th at the $2.5mn Ras Al Khaimah Championship earlier this month. The only Indian constant on the DP World Tour is Shubhankar who has held his card since his epochal twin wins at the Joburg Open in December 2017 and Maybank Championship in February 2018.
However, it has been close to seven years since an Indian has won on the DP World Tour although Ahlawat did come close with a tied-second finish at the co-sanctioned Hero Indian Open last year on his home DLF course here.
"Shubhankar has been there on the European Tour for a few years now and Veer is a big positive. I do hope he goes out and does great things. But Asian tour is the place where we all started playing golf. That's the stepping stone for all of us," Bhullar noted.
The lack of a breakaway star from India after Shubhankar is not for the want of quality. The likes of Gandas, Ahlawat, Viraj Madappa, and Angad Cheema have been bubbling under the surface for a while but none has truly managed to storm through.
"It is quite interesting," said Bhullar. "Given the quality we have, we should be winning more internationally, and this is something that I discuss a lot with Anirban and Jyoti (Randhawa). Maybe it's the lack of hunger, who knows?"
While that may be true, infrastructure remains a major worry. SSP Chawrasia, who won the Hero Indian Open at DLF back in 2017, alluded to a lack of public courses and Gangjee batted for tougher courses across the country to help raise the game domestically. Bhullar tended to agree with both the suggestions.
"The infrastructure has not improved much since the time I started playing all those years back. We have only a handful of championship courses in the country, which is a bit of a shame. Unless we start creating facilities, we'll continue to struggle," he said.
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