Eleven Indians Tee Up at Singapore Open With Open Championship Places and Asian Tour Glory at Stake
Eleven Indian golfers will tee off at the 57th Singapore Open on Thursday, bringing one of the strongest national contingents in the tournament's history to the iconic Serapong Course at Sentosa Golf Club.
With a prize purse of USD 2 million and, crucially, two spots in The Open Championship on offer for the top finishers not already exempt, the stakes extend well beyond Asian Tour points this week in Singapore could be the tournament that opens the door to golf's oldest and most prestigious Major, scheduled for July.
The headline names need little introduction. Karandeep Kochhar, Gaganjeet Bhullar, SSP Chawrasia, Jeev Milkha Singh and Shiv Kapur collectively represent some of the finest careers Indian golf has produced, and all five arrive in Singapore with the experience, the course knowledge and the competitive hunger to challenge for top honours on one of Asia's most demanding layouts.
Kochhar is the man in form and the player most likely to be watched closely by the rest of the field this week. After finishing fourth at the Philippine Golf Championship and fifth at the International Series Japan earlier this year, the Indian number one has been knocking persistently on the door of a breakthrough result at this level, and Singapore feels like the week his form could crystallise into something special. He is effusive about the venue. A player who hits the ball as far as Kochhar should theoretically relish the length of Serapong, and his recent consistency suggests his game is in exactly the right place for a deep run.
Bhullar, with eleven Asian Tour victories to his name and a position among the all-time greats of the circuit, brings the experience of someone who has won at the highest level on Asian soil more times than almost anyone. At 37 he remains a formidable competitor, and a course with as much character and challenge as Serapong suits a player who reads a golf course as well as he reads a room. Chawrasia, a six-time winner including multiple DP World Tour titles, and Jeev Milkha Singh who famously won the Singapore Open here at Sentosa back in 2008 add further layers of pedigree to the Indian challenge. Jeev's return to the course where he wrote one of the most celebrated chapters of Indian golf history carries a narrative weight that will not be lost on anyone who follows the sport.
Shiv Kapur, a three-time Asian Tour winner and the continent's Rookie of the Year back in 2005, rounds out the experienced quintet, while former champions Ajeetesh Sandhu and Rashid Khan bring their own competitive track records to a field of considerable depth.
The younger contingent adds an exciting dimension. Pukhraj Singh Gill, the reigning AM Green IGPL Order of Merit winner, Sachin Baisoya, fresh from his IGPL Invitational Mauritius title, and promising talents Shaurya Bhattacharya and Shubham Jaglan complete the eleven-man Indian presence a group that represents both the present and the future of Indian professional golf.
The Singapore Open returns to Sentosa for the first time since 2022, when Thailand's Sadom Kaewkanjana edged out Korea's Tom Kim in a memorable finish. This week, the course that has witnessed so many memorable moments in Asian golf's history awaits a new chapter and India's eleven will be doing everything in their power to ensure it is written in their colours.
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