Shubhankar Sharma is confirmed to play the Qatar Masters in March
The annual US$ 2mn Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in Doha will be played from March 24-27 as part of the European (DP World) Tour during the same week as the newly created US$ 500,000 DGC Open in New Delhi on the Asian Tour. Among the top Indian pros, Shubhankar Sharma is likely to play in Qatar while Gaganjeet Bhullar will be seen in the DGC Open as he pursues a top 10 ranking on the Asian Tour.
This is the first time that a European Tour event on Asian soil will be held opposite another major Asian pro event and is a result of the recently declared hostility between the two tours as a result of Saudi’s Liv investments tie up with the Asian Tour which the European Tour has categorically opposed. Prior to the announcement of the Saudi’s ambitions of promoting a new Pro Golf League, the two tours had signed a mutual cooperation agreement and were supporting each other to develop the sport in Asia. This new hostility is a setback for Asian countries, including India as the Hero Indian Open, was always supported by both tours but now has to choose sides, a situation which if it continues, will continue to pose problems for Indian Open owners, the Indian Golf Union. Indian professional players have benefited greatly in the past few years from the counting of Indian Open prize money in both tour’s rankings calculations.
The DP World tour having recently announced cancellation of the 2022 Hero Indian Open has further announced two events in April – the US$ 2mn ISPS Handa Championship (Apr. 21-24) in Tarragona and the US$ 2mn Catalunya Championship (Apr. 28- May 01) in Girona, both in Spain.
At India Golf Weekly, we ponder if the Hero Indian Open could have been held the week immediately prior to Qatar which would have worked well, giving the European players two weeks of tournaments to travel to in Asia instead of just one. That certainly would have been an outcome that would have helped Indian players, fans and the popularity of the sport in our country. 2022 will sadly mark the 3rd consecutive year that the Indian Open has not been held.
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