Hero Indian Open: New Aussie on the block worth each-way poke

Delhi Golf Club plays host to a fully-fledged European Tour event for the first time after the Hero Indian Open, an Asian Tour calendar stalwart, was co-sanctioned for 2015.

As local Delhi hero and two-time Challenge Tour winner Shiv Kapur assesses, the 7,014-yard, par 72 layout, is a test of patience and accuracy over power.

“The course is very different from what we’ve played on Tour the last few weeks and especially the Middle East,” he said. “You hit very few drivers off the tee but lots of irons. It’s all about position off the tee so it’s not a bomber’s golf course.”

Coming off tied 11th at last week’s True Thailand Classic and given Kapur’s inside knowledge of the course, the Indian golfer rates fine each-way value at 20/1 toward the top of the betting.

At the sharpest end of the market it is difficult to pick holes in the short prices of the favourite, Anibarn Lahiri, at 7/1, and evergreen Spanish export Miguel-Angel Jiminez at 8s.

Lahiri, an Indian whose made an instant impact on the European Tour, picked up his maiden win at the Malaysia Bank Open two weeks ago in his first full season, which he followed up by shooting a 10-under-par four-round total of 278 in Thailand to place him 21st.

A previous winner of his National Open, runner-up in Delhi in 2014 and an 11-time winner overall in his homeland, Lahiri is one to back here and watch out for in 2015.

Meanwhile, the emphasis on strong iron play over driving will only play into Jiminez’s hands, who comes off tied seventh last week and ranks well inside the top 50 on the European Tour for Stroke Average, Putts Per GIR, Greens In Regulation and Driving Accuracy.

However, much further down the pecking order is another European Tour rookie, whose accuracy in peppering greens should serve him particularly well in the Indian capital.

25-year-old Australian Jason Scrivener, a 50/1 chance, carded a third-round 66 on his way to 15th in his first Tour start as a card holder last month in South Africa, hitting 15 of 18 greens.

With Ladbrokes paying 1/4 of the odds on the first five home, at these odds Scrivener is certainly worthy of a flutter.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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