Filipino Miguel Tabuena fired an inspired seven-under-par 65 to win The DGC Open at Delhi Golf Club and claim his first title on the Asian Tour in just over four years.

The 28-year-old, six behind overnight leader Rashid Khan from India at the start of the day, confidently glided around DGC’s challenging Lodhi Course shooting seven birdies and no bogeys to finish on 12-under and beat Khan by one.

Khan, himself chasing a first Asian Tour victory in nine years, closed with a 72, while Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat finished one shot back to claim third place outright with a 68.

Tabuena, playing in the penultimate group, gradually reeled in Khan, who started the day with a three-shot lead over countryman Chikkarangappa S, and was four behind him at the turn, thanks to three birdies, before a brilliant back nine saw him catch and overtake the Indian.

The Filipino birdied 10, 12, 15 and 16 while Khan dropped shots on 15 and 17, where he had a bad lie in a greenside trap on the par three and failed to get up and down. Khan needed an eagle on the par-five 18th to draw level, but his approach just missed the green from where he chipped to four feet and made a four.

A one hour and 20 minute delay caused by inclement weather while Khan was playing the 14th did little to help the Indian’s chances, while Tabuena’s round was one short of the course record.

“I feel great,” said Tabuena, who becomes only the second player from his country to win in India after his legendary compatriot Ben Arda’s success in the Indian Open in 1969.

“I have been playing well, very well for the past few months and I really believed that another win was coming very soon. I told myself to just stick to the game plan, you have been playing awesome the first few days.”

The win completes something of a comeback for Tabuena who only just kept his Tour card on the Order of Merit in 2022 taking the last spot and who had to deal with the trauma of his father having a heart by-pass last year.

He first tasted victory on the Asian Tour at the Philippine Open in 2015 before his second win at the Queen’s Cup at the end of 2018.

“It is very, very easy to get too aggressive at Delhi Golf Club and I was very, very happy with how we stuck mentally to our game plan,” he added.

“I executed each shot the way I wanted to. It is hard to describe, it is great to be back in the winner’s circle and I really believe there is way more room for improvement still.

“To be honest, bogey-free Delhi Golf Club on a Sunday is probably the best feeling in the world. As soon as I got my scorecard I thought: ‘Did I really just shoot seven-under in Delhi Golf Club at one of the hardest courses we play on the Asian Tour?’ I shot one of the best rounds of my career on a Sunday. I didn’t force any shots, even though it was very easy to. I am pretty overwhelmed, I am pretty tired physically and mentally also.”

Khan will be bitterly disappointed not to have prevailed. Since winning the Sail-SBI Open at DGC in 2014 he has now finished second on five occasions here. He was also second twice on the Asian Tour last year, suggesting his time for another victory will surely come soon.

“I wasn’t hitting it well at all and the worst part was that this is the first time in my life where I couldn’t hit hard,” he said.

“I wasn’t able to swing it well. I have a problem in my swing which I’m working on, and I played this week only on my putter, that’s it. And I just didn’t hole my putts today.

“On the 17th, I had to go for it. I was trying to hit my eight iron and I thinned it again and ended up making a bogey. So, you know when you are two shots back and going into the last hole, that’s different.

“If I had gone aggressive today, the score could have been even worse. During the break, I went to the range and was hitting it well but on the golf course it was a different story. I am taking an off next week.”

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Chikkarangappa S says he is “not a fan” of Delhi Golf Club (DGC) because of its nuances and level of difficulty but that certainly did not show as he confidently swept into the lead at The DGC Open.

The Indian fired a brilliant second-round bogey-free six-under 66, on DGC’s Lodhi Course, to go 10-under and take a healthy three-shot lead over his compatriots Om Prakash Chouhan (68) and Rashid Khan (70), Thailand’s Nitithorn Thippong (70), the defending champion, and Sadom Kaewkanjana (67), and England’s Matt Killen (69).

Chonlatit Chuenboonngam, the impressive young Thai golfer beaten by Australian Wade Ormsby in a sudden-death play-off last week at the International Series Thailand, carded a 67 and is one shot further back with countryman Poom Saksansin (66), first-round leader Siddikur Rahman from Bangladesh, who will be disappointed to card a 73 after his 65 yesterday, and Filipino Justin Quiban (71) — in the Asian Tour’s first visit of the season to the sub-continent.

Chikkarangappa, who started on the back nine, made four birdies on his first nine, birdied his last two, and hit 18 greens in regulation said: “Honestly I am not a fan of this golf course, not a really big fan, but I am just learning how to play every year.”

A top-10 in last week’s International Series Thailand, where he shared the third-round lead with Siddikur, has clearly had a positive effect on a player who has twice finished second on the Asian Tour before.

“I have been putting really well, discussing things with my caddie, and striking the ball really well,” said the Indian, better known as “Chikka”, who has triumphed twice before on the Asian Development Tour, at the India Masters in 2014 and 2015.

“I have given a big responsibility to him [his caddie], with no driver in the bag, to hit the most number of fairways, and with that everything will fall in place.”

Nitithorn beat India’s Ajeetesh Sandhu here last year to claim his maiden Asian Tour title and despite not being at his best today he is perfectly placed heading into the weekend of the $750,000 event.

“I birdied the first but after that my approach shots weren’t so good,” said the Thai golfer.

“I struggled a little bit, bogeyed five, and then a bogey on 10 made me at one over par. After that I came back with birdies on 14, 15 and 18. Yeah struggling, but I am pretty happy to get back to two under. I’ll take that.”

Poom’s 66, the joint lowest round of the day with Chikkarangappa, was highlighted by an incredible run of five birdies in the last seven holes of the back nine, which was his first half as he started on 10, with his only dropped shot of the day coming on 16. After birdies on one and two he parred his way home.

“I played good, the driving was good,” said Poom, a three-time winner on the Asian Tour with the most recent coming at the 2018 Indonesian Masters, an event he also won in 2016.

“There were some misses but still I played well. Most of the time my birdies were from like six feet or six feet. I hit my irons better today.

“This is my third time at DGC. The conditions are now way better at the new course. But the bushes are still the same, if you get into it it is difficult to come out. The fairway is softer so better conditions.”

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The Bangladesh golfer, the winner of India’s national Open here in 2013 who also has 12 other top 10 finishes at DGC on the Asian Tour, fired an imperious seven-under 65.

Defending champion Nitithorn Thippong from Thailand, Filipino Justin Quiban and India’s Rashid Khan finished the day in a tie for second after shooting 67s — in the sixth Asian Tour event of the season.

Last week, Siddikur, 38, shared the third-round lead in the International Series Thailand after firing one of the finest rounds of his 18-year professional career, an eight-under 64. He slipped back on the final day finishing in a tie for 27th but he showed today that he is very much a player in form.

“Last week I played really good, and I am trying to maintain that confidence this week,” he said. “It was a wonderful day today. I am hitting really, really, good, and putting really good. Especially happy it is a bogey-free round.”

He chipped in twice for birdies, on eight and 17, and made seven birdies in total, two on the front, five on the back.

He added: “I have been working on my fitness, my technique, my mental training  so that’s starting to pay off, I can hit any shot I want. It is all starting to work.”

Nicknamed ‘the Tiger of Dhaka’, he is a two-time winner on the Asian Tour (he also won the Brunei Open in 2010). Although relatively subdued over the past four years he showed glimpses of his former self by finishing tied third in the Taiwan Masters and joint fourth in the Bangladesh Open last year.

Nitithorn, who beat Indian Ajeetesh Sandhu in a sudden-death play-off here last year, made a late rally finishing eagle, birdie.

He started his round on hole 10 and made the turn in two-under with birdies on 11 and 15.

Another birdie on the first suggested he was settling into his stride, but he made his only bogey of the day on the following hole before his fine finish.

“I holed from about 10 yards for my eagle on my 17th, the eighth,” said Nitithorn, who also won the International Series Singapore last year to become one of only three players to win twice in 2022.        

How it stands after 18 holes at @TheDGCOpen https://t.co/QQChqRrghk #TheDGCOpen #whereitsAT pic.twitter.com/PEOgeduoeF

— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) March 16, 2023

“I made a really good stroke on that putt, if it hadn’t hit the hole, I think it would have gone a long way past. I was lucky enough it went into the hole.”

The 26-year-old, who finished fourth on last year’s Asian Tour Order of Merit, has yet to find his form this season but DGC is clearly bringing out the best in him.

“I felt very comfortable before the start and after five or six holes I was already two under,” said the Thai golfer.

“I struggled with my approach shots mid-way through the round, but I managed to get it on the green and hole some putts. Like last year I want to shoot 66 everyday.”

Quiban started with 11 straight pars, then made three birdies in a row, followed by pars on 15 and 16, before two closing birdies.

“Front nine was kind of slow,” said the Filipino, who finished fifth here last year for his best result to date on the Asian Tour.

“But the back nine I was hitting it way closer, my putts started to go in and I had three straight birdies from 12. I got confident with my putting stroke.

“Off the tee was really good, I just never got myself out of position, I always had a good look into the green and stayed aggressive the whole day.  I had a good round on the final day last week in Thailand, and I just feel more confident this week.”

Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat, Miguel Tabuena from the Philippines, India’s Varun Chopra and Chikkarangappa S, England’s Matt Killen, and Taichi Kho from Hong Kong all carded 68s.

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Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, such a dominant player on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) in 2022, comes to this week’s The DGC Open at Delhi Golf Club under very different circumstances compared to last year. And he has a feeling it could lead to an even better result than his tied sixth finish in the inaugural edition last season.

Last year, the 26-year-old Chandigarh star was coming off an incredible victory on the PGTI Tour, having won the previous week at Tollygunge Club in Kolkata — making up a three-shot deficit against leader Viraj Madappa over the last three holes.

Sandhu then started The DGC Open with a disappointing three-over-par 75, but a closing 67 ensured he finished inside the top 10.

“I’m excited and I’m nervous at the same time, because I know that the game is in the right place,” said Sandhu, who finished tied 25th in the Hero Indian Open last month but has yet to reproduce the kind of form that saw him win five PGTI titles in 2022 and finish second on the Order of Merit, something that earned him an exemption to play on the Asian Tour.

“It is the Delhi Golf Club. You have got to put yourself in that position to even be in contention. It’s a golf course where you need to be at 100 per cent with every single shot.

“I have always found DGC a course where you have to let go of your ego. You can’t overpower this course. You have to respect it, no matter what. I always come here with that mindset that if I respect the golf course, somehow the course will respect me back.”

Even though Sandhu was in better form last year, he said he made a cardinal mistake at the DGC. He was overconfident.

“Last year, I had just won Tolly before coming to the DGC. It was a most unexpected and thrilling win, and one of my best ever,” said Sandhu, who is now ranked 407th in the OWGR.

“When I reached DGC, everybody was like congratulating me and saying: ‘Well played.’ I went into the tournament playing good golf and I had this feeling that I was going to have another good week. But that’s something you can’t do at DGC. It obviously showed me my place after the first three days.

“On the last day, I lowered my expectations, started respecting the golf course, and suddenly it started giving me back. I birdied the 12th, eagled the 14th, birdied 15th, made a bogey on 17th and then made a birdie the next hole again. It was a very casual round in terms of the mindset.

“I know I have not had big finishes this season, so I’ve already lowered my expectations, which is a good thing. This is the best mindset to enter DGC with.”

Yuvraj Singh Sandhu. Asian Tour

Sandhu, who was involved in a record six-hole play-off at DGC against his current roommate Arjun Prasad during the 2017 Northern India Amateur, said he felt confident he would be able to lift his game despite his recent run of form.

“I feel my game is not that consistent, but I feel sharp enough to win, or score better, this year. I know that if my body and my mind are both aligned in that same week, I will have a pretty good chance at winning like I did at some of the events last year where I won by eight and nine shots,” said Sandhu.

“I’m not looking for consistency in the sense that I want to push as hard as I can. And I have accepted the fact that when I push hard, there are going to be times when things are working in my favour and times when they are not. But there is a lot of comfort in knowing that these things that I am trying right now will pay off later in my golfing career.

“It’s something that I want to know about myself… how hard can I push? What’s the limit? I’m just trying to tell myself again and again and trying to make myself believe that I’m getting there. It will take time, but I am on the right path. I’m sure this year, I should have an international win under my belt.”

Not surprisingly the play-off loss in 2017 to Prasad is a constant topic of conversation, but Sandhu plans to recall only one memory when he tees off in the $750,000 tournament.

“Arjun is my roommate now and whenever we talk and room together, we invariably end up talking about that day. Probably, it’s time the golf course paid me back,” said Sandhu.

“But I don’t think of that loss. The only thing I remember from last year is shooting five-under on the last day. That’s something that I’m going to stick to. That’s the only memory I’m going to go with.”

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Golf is riding a wave of huge popularity in India right now thanks to the emergence of such stars as Shubhankar Sharma and Aditi Ashok, who are taking their place alongside the likes of Shiv Kapur, Anirban Lahiri and Jeev Milkha Singh as household names. 

Fans of the game can get their fill at the renovated Delhi Golf Club this month as the Asian Tour superstars come to town for the second edition of The DGC Open from March 16-19.

Kapur and fellow Indian SSP Chawrasia will be among those flying the flag for the home nation in the $750,000 tournament, which was won last year by Thailand’s Nitithorn Thippong, who just held off India’s own Ajeetesh Sandhu in a playoff to end hopes of an inaugural home champion. 

Gary Player was brought in to redesign the Lodhi Course and bring it up to world-class standards, without changing the basic nature of the course, and will now set the scene for another memorable DGC Open. A field of 132 players, with players from around 25 countries, is expected.

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