There’s a new event on an old golf course this week and Ben Coley fancies Shane Lowry for the DP World India Championship.
Golf betting tips: DP World India Championship
3pts e.w. Shane Lowry at 20/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
2pts e.w. John Parry at 28/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
2pts e.w. Jayden Schaper at 35/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1pt e.w. Jorge Campillo at 125/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Bernd Wiesberger at 125/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook
At a time of year when talk is typically of cards and cut-offs, all eyes are on a selection of world-class golfers heading east for the brand new DP World India Championship.
Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry are four huge draws in any field and they’ll be joined here by their Ryder Cup captain, Luke Donald, plus PGA Tour duo Ben Griffin and Brian Harman. Clearly, big money will have changed hands as Indian fans get to add to their collection following the visit of Bryson DeChambeau and some of his LIV Golf peers back in the spring.
Fascination with these players undoubtedly colours the event, but for hardened DP World Tour fans similar fascination comes from the course. Delhi Golf Club became a fan favourite during its brief time hosting the Indian Open a decade or so ago and that’s because of the difficulty it posed, its fairways guarded by dense vegetation. The Lodhi Course is short and suffocating, the type of layout these star names aren’t often faced with, and the punishment for a big miss is largely straightforward: balls will be lost, shots retaken.
It’s not that there aren’t scoring opportunities, though. In fact there are maybe more here than at DLF, a course with manufactured hazards which have made for some big numbers since it took over hosting duties for the Indian Open. Delhi has a more scoreable set of par-fives and plenty of holes which can be attacked from the fairway, with greens that were small having been made bigger by a 2019 renovation project.
The best way to sum it up is with the following line, taken from the official online course guide. Referring to hole one but applicable to almost all of the 18, it reads: “If you can manage to stay out of the bushes this hole is definitely a good birdie opportunity for the better players.”
Delhi certainly can’t be overpowered and that makes it an intriguing challenge for these elite golfers, McIlroy in particular. Early in his career McIlroy won at Fanling and his brilliance is such that he can win here too, but there can’t be many courses which do more to rein him in. I’d liken this one to Harbour Town, one of the very few venues he’s played three times without cracking the top 30. He ought to do that comfortably in an otherwise standard DP World Tour event, but if he wins it’ll be in spite of the layout.
As well as hitting the ball straight, tidy approach play and a quality short-game are likely requirements. SSP Chawrasia won here with an average driving distance of less than 260 yards back in 2016, emphasising the first point, while a year earlier he’d scrambled incredibly well to take second. His nickname is Chip-putt-sia for a reason and players with a skill set golf is leaving behind will relish rolling back the years as he did.
All of this is set against the reality that seldom do we see such an imbalance between in this case half a dozen golfers who’ve played to an elite standard at some stage this year, and rank-and-file DP World Tour players. The best recent example was the Irish Open, won of course by McIlroy, but that featured Marco Penge, Tom McKibbin, Brooks Koepka, Kristoffer Reitan and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.
Here, Angel Ayora is priced as the best of the European regulars and whenever we have this breadth of quality from top to bottom, not forgetting that a host of local golfers are in this field, the class ones at the top of the market have to be given enormous respect. They simply are used to competing at a much higher level than this.
It all makes for a conundrum to which the answer might well be as simple as ‘Tommy Fleetwood’, but the one I like best is SHANE LOWRY.
Among the big names he’s alongside Harman and Fleetwood as a reliably accurate driver of the ball, but I’d question the motivation levels of the other two. Harman has been off since August and is surely here for a healthy cheque; Fleetwood can manage without one of those after his FedEx Cup bounty, he can’t win the Race to Dubai, and he too would be forgiven for not being as thoroughly prepared as he usually is.
It’s worth saying at this point that there’s a new exemption category for Ryder Cup players which gives them access to the two big-money DP World Tour events which end the season, so Fleetwood doesn’t even need to climb inside the cut-off for the first of them. He can play in Abu Dhabi and Dubai regardless.
Lowry, winless since last year’s Zurich Classic if you count it, Wentworth in 2022 if you don’t, ought to be fully engaged and having holed the putt to secure the Ryder Cup for Europe, I could definitely envisage him riding that wave to an overdue victory at a golf course which really ought to play to his strengths.
He’s only been to India once and not to play this golf course, but twice he probably should’ve won at Harbour Town, he’s been second at Fanling, and a solid record across Asia includes good performances in Japan and Korea, while he’s of course won in the Middle East. Above all else, a tight, tree-lined course where accuracy is key and pars are valuable seems very likely to suit.
And while he shot 75 in round one last week, Lowry’s second-round 68 to miss the cut by one might just have him primed. He surely hadn’t touched a club from signing off at Bethpage to turning up in Madrid and what he said on the eve of the Open de Espana was telling: “If I can get through Thursday with a decent round…”
Lowry didn’t manage that but was firing on Friday and in this field he ought to be about a 14/1 shot. Anything 20s and bigger must be worth taking, the idea that his chance here is similar to when he faced on Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Tyrrell Hatton and a dozen more quality operators in a much deeper field at Wentworth hard to get my head around.
Jordan Smith ought to enjoy this but JOHN PARRY has passed him this season and the Harrogate man can double his tally.
A winner in Mauritius last December having been runner-up the previous week, Parry gave notice right at the beginning of the campaign and has continued to strike the ball supremely well since.
That’s yielded second place in Kenya and fourth at the Soudal Open, both at tight, tree-lined courses, plus two top-threes in Scotland more recently, and throughout he’s been wonderfully consistent; accurate from the tee and with his approaches, sharp around the greens, and left ultimately to capitalise on the good putting weeks when they come.
He couldn’t manage one of those at the Dunhill Links a fortnight ago and therefore settled for third place, followed by 23rd in Spain last week. That came despite a nightmare first round and at a course which definitely wouldn’t suit him on paper, certainly not in the way that Delhi really should.
Parry has played here before, too, finishing 17th after a solid weekend’s golf a decade ago, and he also boasts some recent, winning experience nearby having captured the Delhi Challenge in 2024. He’s been decent at DLF, making his last three cuts, and it feels likely that if and when he does win again on the DP World Tour, it’ll be somewhere that demands a level of accuracy.
This would of course be a step up given the calibre of the opposition but Parry is capable of doing it, thus securing a PGA Tour card and the right to take on the world’s best more often.
Next is a player with a similar skill set, JAYDEN SCHAPER.
Schaper is a really tidy ball-striker, ranking 22nd in fairways, 13th in greens and 15th in the strokes-gained tee-to-green stats this year. His short-game is good, too, evidenced by leading the field in scrambling in two of his last three starts and ranking among the best on the DP World Tour for the season.
The reason he’s had to settle for a host of high finishes and a good statistical profile without looking like winning is that he’s not putted well often enough, but that club has improved throughout each of his last four starts and the result has been ninth in France and fifth in Span.
That’s eight top-10s for the year, four times the number he managed in 2024, and Schaper is to my mind a winner in waiting. Perhaps it’ll have to wait for these stars to depart and a return to South Africa, but of the remaining events I’m certain this golf course represents his best opportunity.
Of course, he’s not played it before, but he has an eye-catching record at DLF and while aesthetically unalike, the ultimate test these courses provide is similar. That’s why players like Joost Luiten, Adrien Saddier and Keita Nakajima have gone so well at the new home of the Indian Open and Schaper has produced two of the best tee-to-green performances of his career at that course.
After a perfect primer in Spain where firm, hard-to-hit greens made it a decent test, the young South African looks among the biggest threats to the big names. I’m wary of what might happen if he’s in contention alongside them, but with Hovland nursing a neck problem, Harman absent for almost two months and Griffin so poor at the Ryder Cup, perhaps Sunday’s leaderboard won’t look quite so strong.
Ultimately, Schaper remains a serious prospect and he’s got three or four excellent chances to win before the year is out, starting here.
I am definitely on the side of accuracy over power here so while that trio Luiten, Saddier and Nakajima all made some appeal, next on my list is EWEN FERGUSON.
Ferguson withdrew from the tournament shortly after publication of this preview
The Scot has ranked 10th, sixth and eighth in driving accuracy over the past three seasons so he’s among the very straightest hitters around and we’ve seen that translate to second place at Rinkven in the spring, as well as fifth place at Wentworth more recently.
The latter was the second time this year that he’s contended in a Rolex Series event, the other having been in Dubai, so step-by-step he’s climbing the ladder, eyes no doubt set on his highest Race to Dubai finish to date which is now very much within reach.
Ferguson’s first win came in a proper grind in Doha, his second at the tight and tough Galgorm Castle, his third at a tree-lined Eichenried where he did battle with the accurate Smith, and before all this he was the 54-hole leader in Kenya where again there’s an emphasis on accuracy.
Like Schaper, he’s shown promise without quite seeing it through at DLF, proving that he can cope with the demands of playing in India, and 35th in Spain last week was perfectly encouraging. He’d been 29th before his latest win, 30th and 12th before the prior one and 40th before his breakthrough, and a fourth DP World Tour title could arrive this weekend.
Darius van Driel is a decent option at a big price given his form at some of the courses mentioned, but I prefer JORGE CAMPILLO on the basis that he’s played at a higher level and has a bit more about him under the gun.
Campillo also has an excellent record in India with four top-10s in nine visits and one of those was here in 2016, when he opened with a round of 66 and hung around all week. That gives him a potentially valuable edge on so many, but also demonstrates that he can cope with the unique demands of Delhi.
Not that this should surprise us. Campillo has since won at Muthaiga, Education City and Dar Es Salaam, all of them difficult and placing a premium on accuracy. The latter in particular might offer some clues and it’s notable that Jeunghung Wang won there before him, soon after he’d been second here in Delhi.
Campillo has been third and fourth at DLF, which I expect to again offer some clues, and while on the face of it he looks to be out of sorts, his trademark approach play has improved lately. That was the case when 21st in the Dunhill Links and also when missing the cut in Spain last week, at a course where he’s yet to be a genuine factor despite playing on home soil.
He was in fact on course to breeze through to the weekend but bogeyed holes 16, 17 and 18 on Friday, latterly missing a very short putt on an easy closing hole, so I hope he can take that huge frustration in his national open and turn it into something positive here.
Campillo’s putter is a bit of a worry but the veteran can nudge his way around this place and threaten the top of the leaderboard if it behaves.
Benjamin Hebert has been hitting his irons supremely well and wants a test of accuracy like this so if his putter continues to improve as it has of late then he could go well at a price, while I did consider Jens Dantorp at 300/1.
Coming to India should be a positive for the Swede as he’s made six cuts from six starts here, sitting close to the lead at halfway in five of them, and this type of course is a definite plus. He’s been second at Rinkven, third in the Barracuda and fourth at St Mellion, while he beat straight-hitting Adrian Otaegui to win at the fiddly Geneve once upon a time.
That’s a course where van Driel, Nacho Elvira, Hebert and Julien Quesne have all won and says everything about the sort of test Dantorp is best suited to, so with a good India record and plenty of substance to his form this year in mind, he’s one I could see outrunning his odds. The trouble is I doubt that’ll be enough to even threaten the places, so he’s one I’d be more inclined to try in any sub-markets where 25th might do.
Dan Bradbury and Joel Girrbach are two straight hitters with flashes of recent form to call upon, the latter in particular, but I’m going to take a chance on the classy BERND WIESBERGER for the final selection.
At 122nd in the Race to Dubai standings, Wiesberger has two chances left to keep his full playing rights for 2026 and his prospects have already been boosted by 16th place in Spain last week, where he led the field in strokes-gained tee-to-green having been the third-best iron player.
There had been signs of promise in the Dunhill Links before that, as there had in a less obvious way in France, and he was solid in all departments when 26th in the Irish Open, all of which combined represents some of the best golf he’s played in what’s been a disappointing year.
Back in the spring his strongest ball-striking performances came in Belgium and Austria on courses which demanded precision and at the very least, coming to a place like Delhi gives him the opportunity to capitalise should be continue to hit it as he did in Madrid last week.
Perhaps his putter will prove too big a handicap but with wins in Korea, China and Indonesia to his name, Wiesberger might just be capable of adding India to that list – particularly if his step forward last week had something to do with having turned 40 on the eve of the tournament.
He wouldn’t be the first to be energised by a milestone birthday and, with so much to play for, three-figure prices appeal.
Posted at 0900 BST on 13/10/25
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