Spain’s Eugenio Chacara cashed in on the soft conditions on Thursday morning to share the early lead in the $4mn DP World India Championship at the Delhi Golf Club course.
The 26-year-old Chacarra, among the earliest starters, neatly navigated a course with narrow fairways, brutal roughs and thick overgrowth beyond where balls are so difficult to find. Chacarra, who started on the 10th hole, sank four birdies in the first six holes before dropping a shot on the par-5 16th, his seventh hole, paying the price for finding the rough off the tee. It left him with a 22-foot putt for par, and the Spaniard who had been brilliant with long putts until then, missed for bogey. Defending champion Tommy Fleetwood was 3-under par, and six-time Major champion Rory McIlroy 2-under, after 14 holes. Having lost his card in the now-defunct LIV Golf tour, he got into the 2025 Hero Indian Open, a DP World Tour joint sanctioned event played at Gurugram’s DLF Golf and Country Club course, on a sponsor’s invite after strong showing the previous week.
When play was suspended due to threat of lightning in inclement weather, Chacarra was 5-under after 16 holes, sharing the lead with Northern Ireland’s 23-year-old Tom McKibbin in the first round. However, he birdied two of the next three holes to go six-under par. McKibbin too had an identical card, with five birdies and a bogey. Chacara’s India love story began two years ago. The tall Spaniard went on to win, and has not looked back since. This season on the DP World Tour (European golf tour), he has two wins and two second places. That has helped lift him to second in the Road to Dubai Rankings in the race to be crowned year-end champion. With three events left after the DP World India Championship, Chacarra lies second, only behind American Patrick Reed. Rory McIlroy, chasing a record-equalling eighth R2DR title, is third.
