It’s been labeled a watershed moment for India.
The inaugural India Championship at Delhi Golf Club on the DP World Tour is taking place this week—with some of golf’s biggest names teeing it up, vying for part of a $4 million purse.
The biggest headliner is Rory McIlroy. Just a few weeks removed from winning the Ryder Cup in New York, the Northern Irishman has admitted that he wants to become more of a global player. He’s playing in the Australian Open later this year, but is checking another box off his bucket list first.
“I’m excited to play a golf tournament in a place that I’ve never played before,” the five-time major champion said. “Eighteen-odd years into a professional career and to still be able to do things for the first time is something that excites me.”
Though this is the first India Championship, it’s not the country’s first golf tournament. So why now?
“It’s hard, because the [Hero] Indian Open [in March] … it’s such a hard time of the year to make it work,” McIlroy said. “We're over in the States playing [the Players Championship] or Bay Hill [the Arnold Palmer Invitational] or getting ready for the Masters. It’s hard to travel across all those time zones and come back again and be in the right place physically and mentally to try to go into the first major of the year.”
However, McIlroy isn’t the only big name in the world’s most populous country this week. He’s joined by Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Luke Donald and Americans Ben Griffin and Brian Harman.
On the 17th tee with Rory McIlroy 👀#DPWIC pic.twitter.com/Uy9TfjkX8b
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 15, 2025
And there’s a bit of a culture shock.
“It’s much different golf than what we typically play on the PGA Tour,” Griffin said, “Especially nowadays in modern golf where we are playing bigger golf courses, longer golf courses. This is a more difficult challenge that we don’t see that often on the PGA Tour and we don’t play too many courses where you’re not hitting very many drivers. I think Brian said he hit maybe three or four or five today. Other players in the field are hitting as little as zero.
“It’s a unique challenge, and it challenges your irons more than anything.”
It’s the first time Delhi Golf Club has hosted a DPWT event since 2016. The course opened in the 1930s and was redesigned by Peter Thomson in 1977 before another restoration by Gary Player Design in 2019. It’s a par-72 measuring 6,912 yards. If this were the PGA Tour, it’d be the third shortest course of the season.
“I don’t think I’ll hit a driver this week,” McIlroy said. “I just don’t feel like the risk is worth the reward. I’d rather leave myself two or three clubs back and hit a 7-iron into a par-4 instead of hitting a wedge, where if you just get it offline here and the ball is gone. You’re hitting it into the jungle and you’re not going to be able to get it out. You can rack up a very big number very quickly.”
This week isn’t all about the stars, though. Co-sanctioned with the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), there is an abundance of native Indians in the field, headlined by Anirban Lahiri, who won on this course a decade ago. He hopes to add another title, edging out the best in the world.
“It’s a significant moment because you’re going to have [McIlroy] a Hall of Famer—he’s a future Hall of Famer for sure,” Lahiri said. “He’s here, he’s embracing this event in our country, and the scene is perfect. We're playing DGC; it’s a historic golf course. I’m very happy to be here, to be a part of it.
“I think it’s, like I mentioned before, it's great for golf that we have such big worldwide names, stars, all the kids of the next generation idolize and gravitate towards, and I think it’s very important in creating that next batch of champions.”
But regardless of who wins, it’ll be one of the country’s biggest sporting events ever.
“Hopefully, we can just put on the best event possible, play well, have an amazing finish to the tournament,” Fleetwood said. I’m sure we're going to get an amazing champion, and hopefully we’ll get a lot of people into the game, as well.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Rory McIlroy and Other Stars Are Enjoying a Unique Stop on the DP World Tour.
