Answers blowing in the wind

Fallen leaves have been swirling around the Delhi Golf Club and Gaganjeet Bhullar believes the summer winds might just hold the answer to which direction the title turns this week.

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Fallen leaves have been swirling around the Delhi Golf Club and Gaganjeet Bhullar believes the summer winds might just hold the answer to which direction the title turns this week. The Asian Tour has moved back to India in less than two months time and with international action returning to the traditionally native-friendly venue after a long gap,the focus is firmly back on conservative play.

As usual,its about keeping your DGC basics in place, Bhullar said on Monday,a day before the first round of the SAIL Opens third edition.

The wind becomes a big factor in these months,and you have to play keeping that in mind when it comes to tackling the courses narrow fairways. And as usual again,I think the bet here would be on someone from the big Indian contingent.

Winning veteran

Bhullar has been handling many of these pre-tournament expert-opinion talks these days,having raced to predicted success last year,but there is a winning veteran at the DGC who insists he cannot be ignored either.

Jyoti Randhawa has not won a tournament at this course in more than two years,but to be fair to the soon-to-be 38-year-old,the course has hosted only two international tournaments the Indian Masters and the 2008 Indian Open in the interim. A lot of new guys have come up to take the attention away from us. We started by setting the benchmark but now theyve begun catching up,so maybe I need to raise my game a little bit. Its always special to play at the DGC as it has been a favourite hunting ground of mine and Im hoping this will turn out to be a good week too, Randhawa warned on Monday.

The winner in that Indian Open in 2008,Chinas Liang Wen-chong,has not made himself available for this tournament. Back though,is the SAIL Open defending champion,with a slightly new perspective in life and a modest insistence on putting his money on a home player.

Not so sure

Thai Chapchai Nirat,who became a first-time father a month ago,says hes not in the kind of form he showed when he won last years title at the Classic Golf Resort with a 32-under record aggregate because of a back injury. Last year,I had just followed my gameplan and everything had just fallen into place, Nirat said. But this time around,Im not so sure because Im playing at just about 70 per cent because of my injury.

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Bhullar says the bush has become a little dense than what he was used to while playing as an amateur here,but it will still be important to keep the hitting well behaved. There are three holes the 9th ,12th and the 16th that are the likely problems. But I would still think a double digit winning score is possible, he said.