The Indian Open, titled for sponsorship reasons as the Hero Indian Open since 2011, is the national

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

championship of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, organised by the Indian Golf Union. Founded in 1964, it was added to the

Asia Golf Circuit The Asia Golf Circuit was the principal men's professional golf tour in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s through to the mid-late 1990s. The tour was founded in 1961 as the Far East Circuit. The first series of five tournaments was held in 1962 ...

schedule in 1970. In 1998 it became an event on the rival Omega Tour (known as the

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for Wor ...

since 2004). Since 2015, it has also been co-sanctioned by the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

. From 1964 until 2000, the tournament was held exclusively at either

Delhi Golf Club The Delhi Golf Club (DGC) is a prominent golf club situated in Delhi, India. It has ultra restrictive membership, with well over a waiting period of over 50 years for prospective members. It is close to Delhi's top tourist sites of India Gate, Hu ...

Royal Calcutta Golf Club Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) in Kolkata, India was established in 1829 and is the oldest golf club in India and the first outside Great Britain. RCGC has an 18-hole golf course with the following detail: *Yardage: 7195/6871 *Par: 72 *Ratin ...

. Since then it has been held at Classic Golf Resort in 2000 and 2001, Karnataka Golf Association in 2012, and DLF Golf and Country Club in 2009 and since 2017; all other editions have been held at Delhi Golf Club.

History

The inaugural event was held in February 1964.

Peter Thomson Peter Thomson may refer to: * Peter Thomson (golfer) (1929–2018), Australian golfer * Peter Thomson (diplomat) (born 1948), Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations * Peter Thomson (footballer) (born 1977), English footballer * Peter ...

beat

Ralph Moffitt Ralph Lawson Moffitt (18 September 1932 – 18 October 2003) was an English professional golfer. He played in the 1961 Ryder Cup. Moffitt was born in Ryton, Tyne and Wear in 1932. Career Moffitt tied for first place in the 1960 Dunlop Tourn ...

by four strokes. Thomson was the inspiration behind the event. He used to stop off in India while travelling worldwide to play and soon realised the potential for golf and that the best way to promote it would be an international tournament. It was this insight that persuaded the Indian Golf Union to establish the Indian Open. Thompson continued to play in the event and won again in 1966 and 1976. His three wins was equalled by

Jyoti Randhawa Jyotinder Singh Randhawa (born 4 May 1972) is an Indian professional golfer. He plays on the Asian Tour where he won eight times between 1998 and 2009. He was ranked in the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking several times between 2004 a ...

in 2007. The second event in 1965 was won by Indian amateur Prem Gopal (Billoo) Sethi, who beat

Guy Wolstenholme Guy Bertram Wolstenholme (8 March 1931 – 9 October 1984) was an English professional golfer. He had a successful career both as an amateur and then as a professional. Early life Wolstenholme was born in Leicester, and is the father of Gary ...

by seven strokes. Sethi still remains the only amateur winner. It was not until 1991, when Ali Sher became champion, that India had another winner. In 1970 the Indian Open became part of the

; it had been an "associate event" on the circuit in 1967 and 1968. As a result of joining the tour, the field increased in strength with notable winners including three-time major champion

Payne Stewart William Payne Stewart (January 30, 1957 – October 25, 1999) was an American professional golfer who won eleven PGA Tour events, including three major championships, the last of which came just a few months before his death in an airplane acci ...

. There have been a number of sponsors over the years, with Hero Honda Motors Ltd taking over sponsorship in 2005. The prize fund for 2017 was US$1.75 million. No events took place in 2020, 2021 and 2022 because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Venues

The following venues have been used since the founding of the Indian Open in 1964.

Winners

Source:

Notes

References

External links

Coverage on the Asian Tour's official site
{{coord, 28.455, 77.106, display=t, type:event Asia Golf Circuit events Former Asian Tour events European Tour events Golf tournaments in India Recurring sporting events established in 1964 1964 establishments in Delhi