Indians have it rough during the first round, Germany’s Schott is in lead at Hero Indian Open

Freddy Schott in action. 

By Anand Krishnaswamy

Gurugramc: The Indian players in the field struggled during the first round of the Hero Indian Open at the DLF Golf & Country Club. The top Indian at the end of the first day was Veer Ahlawat with a score of even par 72 placed T-32 on the leaderboard.

One stroke behind him with a score of 1-over par 73 at T-41 were four Indians – Om Prakash Chauhan, Karthik Singh, Kshitij Naveed Kaul and Mohd Azhar were 1-over par at the end of the day.

Chauhan, Kartik and Kaul had finished their rounds while Azhar had one hole left to play when play was suspended due to darkness.

Ahlawat, who was the runner up at the Hero Indian Open in 2024 made birdies on the first and fourth holes before bogeys on the sixth and eighth holes followed by a double on the ninth saw him slip down the leaderboard. A strong back nine with birdies on the 10th, 12th, 14th and 18th holes with one bogey on the 16th allowed him to close the day with an even par score.

Freddy Schott leads the field after carding 6-under 66 with the highest number of birdies by any single player for the day. Schott made eight birdies and two bogeys to keep himself one stroke ahead of the defending champion Eugenio Chacarra. Chacarra was one of three players to make seven birdies in the first round. In his opening round he made two bogeys and seven birdies.

Schott commented, “Very, very pleased. Really solid out there today. Yeah, it was pretty much a flawless round of golf. Two drops, but at least those were the most difficult holes, so that’s alright.”

He added, “I guess it might be the hardest course this year. You’ve got to be very good off the tee to actually give yourself some chances. You’ve got to be good into the greens, the right areas and then make a putt. So it’s really a testing golf course.”

Schott began his day with a bogey free front nine including four birdies. The 24 year old German who won his maiden DP World Tour title earlier this year would go on to make another two birdies before he made his first bogey of the day on the 14th hole. He would drop one more shot late into the round on the 17th hole to be briefly tied with Chacarra before closing the round with a birdie on the 18th to claim the lead.

Schott made his birdies on the first, fourth, fifth, eighth, 11th, 12th, 15th and 18th holes. The young German is playing his third Hero Indian Open this year and before today had never recorded an under par round at this event. Schott has played seven events this year on the DP World Tour and his victory at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship is the only event this year where he played an under par round on both the first and second day of the event.

Eugenio Chacarra in action.

Chacarra who earned his card for the DP World Tour last year when he won the Hero Indian Open started his day on the front nine and had dropped a shot with an early bogey on the second hole only gain a stroke back on the fourth with a birdie and then drop another with a bogey on the fifth. After making par on the sixth Chacarra would make consecutive birdies on the seventh and eighth holes to close the front nine at one under par. Chacarra began his back nine with consecutive birdies and then made birdies on the 15th and 18th holes to keep himself within one stroke of the leader.

Chacarra was also happy with his solid round, saying, “Yeah, good round, solid all round after not one of the best starts. I hit a great shot on the first and missed a short one and another great shot on the second and ended up with a bogey.

“So very pleased, like I said yesterday it’s a course on which you need to be patient. The good vibes came out on Monday, I came out here and I started hitting it good, so I need to come here more often!

In third place at 4-under par was Dan Bradbury. The three time winner on the DP World Tour made six birdies and two bogeys in his first round. The Englishman is playing his first Hero Indian Open but has come into the event in good form, having won the Joburg Open just two weeks back.

Shubhankar Sharma, Rayhan Thomas, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu and Saptak Talwar fell victim to tricky nature of the DLF Golf Course as they carded opening rounds of 5-over 77 and are placed at T-98 alongside Akshay Bhatia, the highest ranked player in the field this week.

Yuvraj Sandhu, who won the PGTI Order of Merit in 2025 carded 8-over 80 for his first round and would be forced to produce a miracle on the second day if he hopes to make the cut this week.

Akshay Bhatia’s opening round was a tale of two halves as he began on the back nine with a double bogey. Followed by a birdie on the 11th. Consecutive bogeys on the 13th and 14th followed by a triple bogey on the 15th and a double bogey on the 18th saw the 24 year old Indian origin player start the front nine with a score of 8-over par. The 15th hole was a nightmare as Bhatia was given a penalty for hitting the wrong golf ball.

Once Bhatia moved into the front nine he was able to find his rhythm and played bogey free and also managed to recover three strokes with birdies on the third, fifth and eighth holes. After his round Bhatia stated he was happy to not finish the day with a card of eight over given how he played on the back nine.