Indian Open: Ajeetesh Sandhu best Indian at 4th as three players share lead on opening day

GURUGRAM(Haryana): Marcus Armitage of England, seeking to end a four-year title drought, led by one when he came to the final hole of the first round at the 2025 Indian Open. The 37-year-old Yorkshireman found trouble as he went into the left rough off the 18th tee and gave back a shot to fall into a three-way lead.

Armitage shares the lead alongside Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts and Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult, who played in the morning and held a share of the lead for most of the day.

Interestingly, none of the three co-leaders have won on the DP World Tour in the last four years, a release said.

Ajeetesh Sandhu (69), who also played in the morning, and Veer Ahlawat (70), who was tied for second last year, were the best Indians in Tied-4th place and Tied-10th. There were five other Indians at Tied-30th.

Two-time Hero Indian Open winner SSP Chawrasia, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Shiv Kapur, Om Prakash Chouhan and Rayhan Thomas shot 72 each on a day when even par was a good score, to be at the Tied-30 spot.

The DLF Golf and Country course, which is considered one of the most challenging courses in India and on the DP World Tour, lived up to its reputation and yielded just 30 under par scores.

As Armitage slipped, Chawrasia, who came into the flagship event of the Indian Golf Union on a sponsor’s invite from Dr Pawan Munjal, Executive Chairman, Hero MotoCorp, shone through in the fading light.

Chawrasia, the last Indian to win the Hero Indian Open back in 2017, fell to 3-over through the first eight holes. He then produced a great fightback on the tougher back nine. Following bogeys on the first, fourth and the eighth, he was 3-over before a birdie on the ninth provided some consolation. He dropped a shot on the 10th to go 3-over again.

Then began the damage control as he had two sets of back-to-back birdies – first on the 12th and the 13th and then on the 17th and the 18th – with a bogey in between, for an even par 72.

Colsaerts and Armitage picked four birdies each on the scoring front nine but overall had seven birdies against three bogeys each. Kinhult had five birdies against one bogey, the release said.

Sandhu, also with four birdies, found six in all and gave back three bogeys, while Ahlawat, playing on his home course, started on the back nine and had three birdies in a row from the 13th. In all he had five birdies and three bogeys.

On his round, Armitage said, “Teeing off in the afternoon, it’s pretty hot out there. It’s dot to dot around here, I really like the golf course. It’s different. You’ve got to play some great golf to show a good score and I put in fantastic today. We were really cool to get some success around here.”

Colsaerts said, “Well, it went great today. It’s a difficult golf course. So, anyone who will shoot under-par today is going to be extremely happy. The rough is high this year, the greens are firmer. It’s a little bit like a mini US Open. It’s a really hard course.”

He added, “The finishing hole 18 is really nice. Visually, the 16, is an amazing par 3, there’s a couple of great holes on the front. I don’t think 17 is going to be of everyone’s taste because you don’t really see anything, it’s big elevation but I think all in all it’s a golf course that if you play good golf you’re going to enjoy playing.”

Sandhu was rather stoic about his round, saying, “I wouldn’t say anything was great today but I think everything was above average. I hit a lot of fairways and greens and putted well. Just kept my head on my shoulders through the day and just kept plugging along.

On his bogey on the 17th, he added, “Yeah, 17 is just a tricky hole. I hit the fairway, I had 7 iron in, I had a good shot, it just went over the green. It’s a really tough chip from there. I hit it to five feet and missed the putt. It hurts a little bit.”

On what the Indian Open means to him, Sandhu added, “The Hero Indian Open is the biggest event probably that I have played. I played it a lot of years now and every time you are teeing up, especially this being our national open, is always a great feeling competing in this. Hopefully, one day I get to lift the trophy.”

Ahlawat said, “I think yes, the course setup is slightly different from last year. It’s playing slightly firmer and few of the flags are little tucked in. It’s tough to hit them, especially if you’re not there in the right spot of the fairway.”

Kinhult said, “I got off to great start with 3 birdies in the first four holes. Then it was bit scrappy around the turn. I hit some bad shots but scrambled well. And then just played well towards the end. Gave myself some chances and yeah, happy with the 68. “(ANI)