Tan is gearing up for HWIO 2025 as Indians rely on fame

File photo of Singaporean star Shannon Tan narrowly missing out on the Hero Women’s Indian Open honors last year. Image courtesy of LET.

By Rahul Banerji

Singapore star Shannon Tan, a contender for the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit honours, played the Hero Women’s Indian Open Pro-Am on Wednesday looking for clues after coming within a shot of victory last year.

In contrast, rankings leader Mimi Rhodes opted to soak up some local culture and cuisine ahead of the $500,000 tournament at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon.

Some of the best Indians were also in action and took a closer look at the course, which has received generous amounts of rain and promises to play differently than last year.

World top 30 player Aaron Rai of England had clubs in hand alongside new bride Gaurika Bishnoi, who has a fine record at the event with three top 10s to her name.

With her acclaimed golfer husband for company, Gaurika hopes to scale new heights on her home course this year.

Aaron and Gaurika played the Pro-Am with Dr. Pawan Munjal, executive chairman of Hero MotoCorp, while former Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev was in action alongside Ridhima Dilawari.

Another top golfing couple – Tvesa Malik and Ajeetesh Sandhu – were in attendance, although the former split her time between playing and sharing shopping and dining tips with her LET friends.

Essential tip

“It’s nice to share the culture of India with them,” Tvesa said. “They show us their cities when we play abroad and this was a way of saying thank you.”

Pranavi Urs, returning from injury, will be hoping to build on her recent top five finish in France, while Diksha Dagar is aiming to better her third-place finish of 2023.

Avani Prashanth, Gaurika, Hitaashee Bakshi and Jasmine Shekar all had an eye on how the rain-affected course played out ahead of Thursday’s tournament tee-off.

Meanwhile, for Rhodes, it was also about preparation, even though she had opted for sightseeing on Wednesday.

“I still have to do the same preparation and make sure I am focused and get into my practice and also spend time in Delhi to travel around.

“I have to make sure I stay in the right mindset and practice and get ready for the tournament. It’s exciting to be here in a new culture and experience something that’s outside my comfort zone.

“The course is tough. You have to position yourself very well off the tee, the rough course is long. I really like it, the layout is interesting and every hole is different.

“You have to think about your shots off the tee, but the rain helped us as players because I heard the course was very tough last year when it was dry.

“It’s nice to get the shots to stop on the greens. It should be sunny starting tomorrow, so the course will definitely change, and I just have to adjust my game.”

Tan, who is 209.54 points behind Rhodes and could reach the top with a win this week, said: “I have been looking forward to this event after last year.

Good change

“I played well in the last round, but for that whole week I was just focused on hitting fairways and greens and keeping the ball in play. It can be quite a challenge.

“They’ve had rain this year, so the greens are softer and not as fast as last year, but they have gotten rough.

“It’s different, but still challenging. As rough as it is, you have to be on the fairways and because the greens are softer, you can go to the pins a little more, but you still have to be careful with your misses.”

Also read: The season-ending battle looms for the LET Order of Merit crown

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