Khalin, Kapur, Bhullar look at Panasonic Open with different aims and ambitions

The last four winners including defending champion Khalin Joshi are in the field of 126 players at the Panasonic Open India, beginning here on Thursday.

The tournament, which ventures out of the Delhi Golf Club for the first time, carries a purse of USD 400,000 and provides a great platform for home stars to make a breakthrough at the Asian Tour level.

Six of the eight past champions had Panasonic Open India as their maiden wins, the only exception being SSP Chawrasia in 2014 and Shiv Kapur in 2017.

The six players who made the event their first wins include Anirban Lahiri (2011); Digvijay Singh (2012); Wade Ormsby (2013), also the only non-Indian to have won the event; Chiragh Kumar (2015); Mukesh Kumar (2016) and Khalin Joshi (2018).

Interestingly no player has won the tournament more than once, so as many as five players in this field will be looking at becoming the first repeat winner.

One of the highlights of the event will be the coming together of the Big Three' of Indian golf Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa, who between the three of them have done great service to the sport in the country and the region. Randhawa, incidentally, will play his 300th Asian Tour event this week.

Another one looking for a landmark is Gaganjeet Bhullar, already the highest winner of Asian Tour titles at nine. He will attempt to become the first Indian to get into double digits.

When asked about him still looking for his first win at home, he remarked with a smile, Thanks for reminding me of that. I've never won so far in India and last year was really good when I got my first European Tour win in Fiji."