Hero Indian Open 2018 - DLF G&CC, New Delhi, India

The Hero Indian Open is hosted for the second successive year by the DLF G&CC this week, a Gary Player designed course that came in for a lot of criticism twelve months ago as the players were made to look silly, racking up double digit scores on a few holes, losing balls and ultimately ending with numerous "disqualifications" and more honest withdrawals.

I'm not confident of how the course will play this year but have concluded patience will be key. Players who bring accuracy to the course should contend and perhaps just as George Coetzee showed last week, home contenders could be the ones to beat. Interesting to note, that over the past 3 years at this event, at both here and at Delhi GC, not one player has beaten SSP Chawrasia over 72 holes, SSP losing a playoff to compatriot, Anirban Lahiri. Also worth noting is that SSP won by SEVEN shots last year on a course that was perceived to be a long course ! He defends this week and is available still @ 20/1.

Shubhankar Sharma is the talk of the town this week after his exploits in Mexico and given that he calls this is home course, we could be enticed to follow in the Coetzee footsteps but at the price and the extra home pressure, not to mention fatigue, he can be opposed.
 Lahiri is very tempting here and could be motivated to re-establish himself as India's Number One but at the last minute I've decided he's too short for my liking on a course that scupper anyone.

Just two selections this week for me in the outright - Jeunghun Wang @ 38.00 and Andrew Johnston @ 36.00. The South Korean missed his first cut of the season last time out in Qatar but form prior to that was good (26-62-6-15) and his price is better than my tissue of 29.00. "Beef" showed his composure and ability for tough,fiddly tracks when winning at Valderrama and could be due another good week.Recent form is solid having posted 12-27-45-9 in his four previous starts.

From my shortlist this week, I was tempted by Joost Luiten, Seán Crocker (very tempted) and Matteo Mannasero, but not enough juice in the price for me.

1.00 pt WIN J.Wang @ 38.00
1.00 pt WIN A. Johnston @ 36.00

2.00 pts TOP10 J.Wang @ 4.5
2.00 pts TOP10 A. Johnston @ 4.5