Paul Williams

Paul Williams' Hero Indian Open Tips 2026

Get Paul's previews as soon as they're published @golfbetting Follow Now
Follow us on X @golfbetting
Join over 6,600 punters on our facebook group
Watch our latest tips videos on YouTube

Stats Pages For This Event:

 

The DP World Tour heads north-west to India this week as we complete our 2-week mini-swing in the east. A field containing a mix of DP World Tour regulars and a smattering of local players who have been granted national spots will tee it up around the tough, quirky Gary Player course at DLF Golf and Country Club.

Having won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill a fortnight ago, Akshay Bhatia makes his Indian Open debut this week in a rare foray this side of the Atlantic, and as by far the highest-ranked player in the field he’s understandably been installed as this week’s favourite with the 8/1 available being backed heavily by early-bird punters at the time of writing. David Puig is a point or so longer in the betting, with Casey Jarvis and Angel Ayora completing an eye-catching quartet at the head of this week’s market.

bet365 2026 Majors Competition Sponsored By bet365:

Following on from the success of the last 14 annual GBS Majors competitions, bet365 have kindly offered to sponsor the 2026 edition once again with a massive £250 CASH prize fund! Our 2026 winner will receive £150 (or currency equivalent) in cash with additional £75 and £25 prizes for 2nd and 3rd place finishers.

Basically we want you to pick a single player for each of the 4 Majors any time before the start of the 2026 Masters and get those 4 names entered into the competition by one of the methods detailed on our rules page here. Best of luck all!

✅ Bet £10 get £30 in free bets for new customers
✅ Bonus code SPORT30 can be used, but does not change the offer amount in any way
✅ For further details read our bet365 new customer offer page
✅ Early odds available each week on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour
✅ ‘Each Way Extra’ promotion where you can choose between 3, 8, 10 or 12 places each way

bet365 New Customer Offer: Bet £10 & Get £30 in Free Bets for new customers at bet365. Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Registration required. The bonus code SPORT30 can be used during registration, but does not change the offer amount in any way. #Ad

CLAIM T&Cs

DLF G&CC. Designer: Gary Player, 2015; Course Type: Technical; Par: 72; Length: 7,416 yards; Water Hazards: 6 in play; Fairways: Celebration Bermuda; Rough: Celebration Bermuda; Greens: Bermuda Mini Verde.

Course Overview. After a couple of years at the tight, tree-lined sub-7,000 yard Delhi Golf Club, this event moved to Gary Player’s new course in 2017 as the track made its debut on the DP World Tour.

In stark contrast to the previous venue, Player has carved a brute out of the Aravalli Hills which stretches to 7,657 yards in length from the Gold tees, however, as per previous years, the professionals will be playing from some of the forward tees this week, meaning that the parkland-style track will play as a 7,416 yard, Par 72 with the potential for different tees to be used as the tournament progresses which may well reduce the yardage even further.

Built to the latest golf design standards including a full sub-air system, the layout features severe elevation changes, eye-catching bunkering and large, undulating greens.

Fairways are fairly narrow and water features heavily on 6 holes, including the par-3 5th which is to an island green as the front 9 (the ‘Lake 9’) meanders around the 2 lakes that the course flanks. The back 9 (the ‘Quarry 9’) is the longest of the two and contains the holes with the most elevation change. Bermudagrass has been used throughout the construction with Mini Verde the strain of choice on the greens.

hero indian open tips

Tournament Stats. We’ve published some key player statistics for this week’s Indian Open that will help to shape a view on players who may go well this week, with results taken from the events held on this course since 2017 on the DP World Tour and the PGTI/Asian Tour: Current Form | Course Form | First Round Leader Stats | Combined Form Stats.

Course Winners.

  • Asian Tour: 2025: Ollie Schniederjans (-10)
  • PGTI: 2023: Karan Pratap Singh (-7, 54 holes); 2022: Varun Parikh (-11)
  • DP World Tour: 2025: Eugenio Chacarra (-4, 45/1); 2024: Keita Nakajima (-17, 33/1); 2023: Marcel Siem (-14, 33/1); 2019: Stephen Gallacher (-9, 150/1); 2018: Matt Wallace (-11, 66/1); SSP Chawrasia (-10, 80/1).

Predictor Model. Our published Predictor Model is available here. As always you can build your own model using the variables available.

Weather Forecast. The latest weather forecast for the area is here.

The tournament should enjoy sunny conditions with hot temperatures (mid-90s Fahrenheit) and relatively light winds expected, with nothing more than 10-15mph in the forecast.

Tournament Trends & Key Factors. Stats from the 5 winners here at DP World Tour level prior to last year gives us a little more insight into the requirements for this test – sadly no stats were captured for last year’s winner Eugenio Chacarra:

  • 2024: Keita Nakajima (-17). 309 yards (17th), 64% fairways (45th), 75.0% greens in regulation (20th), 38.9% scrambling (54th), 1.50 putts per GIR (1st)
  • 2023: Marcel Siem (-14). 309 yards (5th), 75% fairways (13th), 86.1% greens in regulation (2nd), 40% scrambling (44th), 1.72 putts per GIR (12th)
  • 2019: Stephen Gallacher (-9). 291 yards (32nd), 66.1% fairways (45th), 76.4% greens in regulation (12th), 41.2% scrambling (35th), 1.62 putts per GIR (2nd)
  • 2018: Matt Wallace (-11) . 294 yards (18th), 82.1% fairways (9th), 66.7% greens in regulation (31st), 58.3% scrambling (5th), 1.58 putts per GIR (3rd)
  • 2017: SSP Chawrasia (-10). 266 yards (67th), 76.8% fairways (12th), 66.7% greens in regulation (31st), 75% scrambling (1st), 1.71 putts per GIR (7th)

The greens are huge, particularly on the back 9, and players who miss the putting surfaces in regulation need to have a razor-sharp short game to save them from dropping shots. The greens themselves are excellent quality, however it’s critical to find the right portion of putting surfaces given the undulations, so quality lag putting is also an important strength to possess. It’s no surprise to see that each of our winners above had ranked inside the top 12 for putts per GIR on the week.

Strokes Gained: From a Strokes Gained perspective, stats for the 3 DP World Tour level winners here where stats were captured are as follows:

  • 2024: Keita Nakajima: T: 31st; A: 24th; T2G: 30th; ATG: 45th; P: 1st
  • 2023: Marcel Siem: T: 1st; A: 19th; T2G: 9th; ATG: 45th; P: 4th
  • 2019: Stephen Gallacher: T: 49th; A: 2nd; T2G: 4th; ATG: 10th; P: 13th

Stats are patchy for all three renewals and once again nothing was captured for Chacarra last year, however the most consistent statistic of those who contended on each occasion was SG Tee to Green. However, what set the eventual winner apart from the nearest challengers was performance on the greens, with event Stephen Gallacher who isn’t regarded as the best of putters performing well on the putting surfaces.

Key: T: SG Off the Tee; A; SG Approach; T2G: SG Tee to Green; ATG: SG Around the Green; P: SG Putting.

 

Incoming Form. Of the 9 course winners, PGTI winners Varun Parikh and Karan Pratap Singh had the most tangible recent form, albeit at lower levels, alongside last year’s winner Eugenio Chacarra who had recorded three top-6 finishes in his previous four starts.

2024 champion Keita Nakajima had ended his Japan Tour season in some style with a win and three successive top-10 finishes before finishing 4th in Ras al Khaimah at DP World Tour level, however there wasn’t that much to note from that point. Progressive rounds of 73/70/69/68 the week before in Singapore suggested that his form might be heading towards a peak though.

2023 winner Marcel Siem grabbed his first win for just over 8 years in the February of that year, arriving off the back of back-to-back 17th place finishes in Singapore and Thailand in the two weeks before.

Prior to that, Stephen Gallacher won off the back of 4 straight missed cuts, and you have to go all the way back to the Dunhill Links the previous October before you find a top-10 finish to his name.

It’s fair to say that the incoming form of the other two winners was subtle at best. Matt Wallace had recorded his best finish of the season on his previous start in Qatar when finishing 19th a fortnight before winning here; likewise Chawrasia had also recorded his best result of the season on his last start, 35th at the World Super 6 in Perth.

  • 2026: Eugenio Chacarra: 41/28/40/65/MC/61/28/14/5/6/5/20
  • 2025: Ollie Schniederjans: 69/54/11/MC/MC/MC/26/19/WD/MC/46/35
  • 2024: Keita Nakajima:10/51/1/20/2/4/2/4/MC/33/MC/29
  • 2023: Karan Pratap Singh: 34/18/2/1/MC/27/13/MC/27/14/6/16
  • 2023: Marcel Siem: 28/20/37/MC/43/16/5/47/19/MC/17/17
  • 2022: Varun Parikh: 37/MC/MC/21/23/29/52/53/MC/30/3/20/MC
  • 2019: Stephen Gallacher: 44/10/70/29/35/60/MC/67/MC/MC/MC/MC
  • 2018: Matt Wallace: 59/4/18/54/34/30/38/32/37/MC/44/19
  • 2017: SSP Chawrasia: MC/MC/34/71/47/1/MC/70/MC/MC/MC/35

Course Form: Of the 9 course winners, only Stephen Gallacher in 2019, Marcel Siem in 2023, and Eugenio Chacarra last year had any tangible course form, with Gallacher having finished 29th on debut and 7th the year before his win, Siem having finished 29th on his debut also, and Chacarra having finished 5th here on the Asian Tour a couple of months before his win:

  • 2026: Eugenio Chacarra: 5
  • 2025: Ollie Schniederjans: Debut
  • 2024: Keita Nakajima: Debut
  • 2023: Karan Pratap Singh: Debut
  • 2023: Marcel Siem: 29/MC
  • 2022: Varun Parikh: MC
  • 2019: Stephen Gallacher: 29/7
  • 2018: Matt Wallace: Debut
  • 2017: SSP Chawrasia: Debut

The key aspect to focus on this week in my view is the difficulty of the course and the fact that players need to be 100% focussed and prepared for this tough test from the outset.

Some players relish a grind, whereas others don’t have the mental approach to shrug off the inevitable bogeys or worse and they can quickly spiral downwards once the first few mistakes are made. For me, focussing on those players who have proven in the past that they can grind out a score on some of golf’s tougher tests is no bad attribute, however equally those players who are comfortable with the surroundings and the hot conditions may also be at an advantage.

My Final Hero Indian Open Tips Are As Follows:

Jorge Campillo 2pts EW 30/1 (8EW, 1/5) with Betfred

As much as the inclusion of Akshay Bhatia and David Puig enhances the profile of this year’s Indian Open, both men are making their debuts on this quirky course this week and there’s no guarantee that they’ll take to Gary Player’s creation on the first attempt.

Course experience hasn’t proven to be critical in recent years I grant you, however with the leading pair pushing many prices out to backable each-way levels, I’m happy to take on the market principals – and the likes of Jarvis and Ayora – with some mid-priced chances who I think could give us a run for our money, starting with Jorge Campillo.

The Spaniard will celebrate his 40th birthday this June and he can bring that experience and an attitude that often serves him well on tougher setups to this week’s task. His breakthrough win at DP World Tour level came at the Trophee Hassan II in 2019 where his 9-under total was good enough for a two stroke victory, and he followed that up with a 13-under success at Education City in Qatar on another challenging layout.

It’s his record both here at the DLF G&CC as well as his wider form in India that really catches the eye though. 3rd (2019) and 4th (2020) on this track, the Spaniard also finished runner-up at the 2012 Avantha Masters, 10th in this event when it was held at Delhi GC, and 11th as recently as last October in the co-sanctioned India Championship.

18th at the Joburg Open then 2nd last week in China also encourages, particularly when you consider that two of his three DP World Tour wins came off the back of a top-4 finish or better on his previous start.

✅ New UK customers: Bet £10 Get £50 in free bets for new customers using code BETFRED50 and this qualifying link
✅ For further details read our Betfred promo code> page
✅ Odds compiler takes a different view of many events meaning value can be found
✅ Flexible each-way terms available with 5, 7, 8 and 10 place options to choose from

Betfred New Customer Offer: Significant terms: New customers only. Register, deposit with Debit Card, and place first bet £10+ at Evens (2.0)+ on Sports within 7 days to get 3 x £10 in Sports Free Bets & 2 x £10 in Acca Free Bets within 10 hours of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility & payment exclusions apply. Full T&Cs apply. #Ad

CLAIM T&Cs

Frederic Lacroix 1.5pts EW 50/1 (6EW, 1/5) with BetMGM

Another player with a decent overall record in India is Frederic Lacroix and he’s also available at a backable each-way price this week, despite having shown some strong form in the recent past.

Progressive form of 56/21/13 here at the DLF G&CC is bolstered by finishes of 11th and 5th at PGTI level back in 2023 and a solid enough 26th place finish at the India Championship back in October, and generally he’s got to grips with the long game demands of Indian golf without putting well. Interesting then that he’s putting better than his long-term average of late, culminating in a top-10 SG Putting effort on his penultimate start in South Africa which ranked as his best performance on that metric for well over a year.

If we park the fact that the 31 year-old missed the cut in China and accept that is one of the reasons that he’s close to double the odds from a week ago, then we can instead focus on what’s been a strong, progressive start to 2026. After opening his year with a 33rd place finish at the limited-field Dubai Championship, Lacroix has produced finishes of 56/41/24/9/2 before his weekend off at the Hainan Classic, carding an impressive 62 at the Kenya Open which pushed him into the halfway lead, before closing with rounds of 64/65 to sit in the trio of players closest to Casey Jarvis in South Africa.

Frederic’s maiden DP World Tour title came at the 2024 Danish Golf Championship on what proved to be a challenging track with only he and two others finishing at double-digits under par, and another tricky assignment could appeal to him this week.

✅ Bet £10, Get £40 in Free Bets using this qualifying link
✅ For further details read our BetMGM sign up offer page
✅ First Round Leader 6 places each-way 1/5 odds terms on all PGA & DP World events plus strong odds

Significant terms: New cust: Deposit £10+ in 7 days & bet on sports. Min odds apply. Reward = 4 x £10 Free Bets (2 x £10 Bet Builders & 2 x £10 Sports Bet). Valid 7 days. Free bets not valid on eSports and non-UK/IE horse racing. 18+. T&Cs apply. #Ad

CLAIM T&Cs

Adrian Otaegui 1.5pts EW 50/1 (8EW, 1/5) with Betfred

The opening quotes of 80/1 about Adrian Otaegui understandably lasted a matter of minutes, however the 5-time DP World Tour champion is still more than backable now that the price has been corrected.

Within that list of achievements was a 6-strokes victory at one of the toughest tests of all, Valderrama, and the Spanish-born golfer – who now represents the UAE – has the game to tame tougher tracks such as this week’s task.

12th on his 2015 Indian Open debut back in 2015 at the Delhi Golf Club, the 33 year-old has gone on to finish a best of 10th here on this Gary Player design in 2019. 26th in 2024 also showed some promise where he opened with 67 to sit in 7th spot after day 1, before closing with a round of 69.

The really eye-catching numbers this week though are Otaegui’s current form stats. Eugenio Chacarra had recorded three top-6 finishes in his last four starts before winning this 12 months ago and Adrian can boast similar, if not better, results this year, having finished 6th at both the South African and Joburg Opens, before improving to 3rd last week at the Hainan Classic. He’s won off of progressive form in the past and, given the price on offer, I’m happy to pay to see if he can do the same again here this week.

✅ New UK customers: Bet £10 Get £50 in free bets for new customers using code BETFRED50 and this qualifying link
✅ For further details read our Betfred promo code> page
✅ Odds compiler takes a different view of many events meaning value can be found
✅ Flexible each-way terms available with 5, 7, 8 and 10 place options to choose from

Betfred New Customer Offer: Significant terms: New customers only. Register, deposit with Debit Card, and place first bet £10+ at Evens (2.0)+ on Sports within 7 days to get 3 x £10 in Sports Free Bets & 2 x £10 in Acca Free Bets within 10 hours of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility & payment exclusions apply. Full T&Cs apply. #Ad

CLAIM T&Cs

Bernd Wiesberger 1pt EW 100/1 (8EW, 1/5) with bet365

Finally I’ll take a chance on an experienced hand in the shape of Bernd Wiesberger who may have the patience and wherewithal to do what Marcel Siem did a couple of years ago and win here against some players half his age.

One of the original LIV contingent to join that circuit back in 2022, it never quite worked out for the Austrian and he left after a couple of fairly fruitless seasons to have another go at the DP World Tour where he’d won eight times prior to his departure, two of which were at Rolex Series level.

2nd at the 2024 European Open was the closest that the 40 year-old has come to adding another trophy to his collection since then, and that result has some relevance this week as it came at Green Eagle, one of the tougher tests on the circuit.

His form through 2025 was poor until the latter end of the year where he finished the year off with a form line of 16/17/MC/10/23 to offer some encouragement heading into the new year.

Playing off of a career money list exemption this week, Bernd arrives having finished 14th at the South African Open and 12th at the Joburg Open before taking a couple of weeks off, and his long game stats caught the eye on both occasions, ranking 7th & 5th for SG Approach and 5th & 4th for SG Tee to Green across those two efforts.

23rd here in 2019 is his best effort, where only a Saturday 75 stopped him improving on his halfway position of 12th. With his game seemingly moving in the right direction once again, perhaps he can use his guile and experience to grind out a contending performance here this week.

✅ Bet £10 get £30 in free bets for new customers
✅ Bonus code SPORT30 can be used, but does not change the offer amount in any way
✅ For further details read our bet365 new customer offer page
✅ Early odds available each week on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour
✅ ‘Each Way Extra’ promotion where you can choose between 3, 8, 10 or 12 places each way

bet365 New Customer Offer: Bet £10 & Get £30 in Free Bets for new customers at bet365. Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Registration required. The bonus code SPORT30 can be used during registration, but does not change the offer amount in any way. #Ad

CLAIM T&Cs

Odds and bookmaker offers correct at 16:50GMT 23.3.26 but are naturally subject to fluctuation.