Aman Raj registered a T-6th finish at The Challenge in Bangalore
Indian pros were strangely outclassed by the European Challenge Tour contingent during the recent two weeks of back to back US$300,000 events held for the first time in India as a result of the new cooperation agreement between PGTI and the European Tour.
Notably, nine out of the top-10 finishers at the 2nd tournament, the KGA Challenge, played last week, were foreigners. Aman Raj of Patna, who finished tied sixth at 15-under 273 after posting rounds of 68-67-69-69, was the only Indian in the top-10.
Kartik Sharma and Veer Ahlawat were the next best-ranked Indians at 11th with matching totals of 13-under 275.
The little known 30-year-old Ogo Coussaud from France shot 68-67-68-67 (18-under 270) to win the title while Manuel Elvira of Spain and Joel Girrbach of Switzerland finished in a tie for second at 17-under 271.
Last week, Indians fared slightly better with home player OP Chouhan from Mhow and Ahmedabad winning the title with a strong final round 65. Here again Aman Raj was the only other Indian inside the top-10. They were the only two Indian pros in the top-20 as well while M Dharma of Bangalore was the only other Indian pro in the top-30.
This is in stark contrast to what we see at The Delhi GC Open, the US$750,000 Asian Tour event at the DGC which took place in Delhi the week prior to the two Challenge Tour events, where it’s common to see 8 to 10 Indian players finishing inside the top-20. Why this is the case requires further investigation. One explanation is that there is more depth on Challenge Tour compared to the Asian Tour. Another is that Indian pros are more comfortable playing on the narrow fairways of DGC than the KGA, which hosted back to back events and played two events in nine days. Or it could just be a random result from a small sample size. Next year’s events will tell us whether this was a one-off or the start of a trend that requires attention.
Credits:-
Photo – PGTI