Hero Indian Open has desi flavours in more ways than one

By Rahul Banerji

In addition to all the home-grown talent talent on show at the $1.75 million 55^th Hero Indian Open, there will be a few names that will roll easily off desi tongues.

Three of them – Aaron Rai, Julian Suri and Jack Singh Brar – may not be Indian Indians, but have roots here. While Rai and Brar carry British passports, Suri is American. And all three have done enough on golf courses around the world to merit more than passing attention, and are bound to have their share of fans at the Indian Open,

Suri’s father was a tennis player and later coach, who shifted to the US and encouraged his son to take up. Rai, who wanted to be a Formula One racer but came into golf after his mother, Dalvir, who is of Kenyan-Indian descent, got him going.

Rai’s father, Amrik, who is also of Indian descent, was once offered a tennis scholarship, but chose a conventional career over sport.

Brar won the Faldo series in 2012 and then played the Walker Cup for England, winning three of his four matches in 2017, following which he turned pro.

Suri, 27, won the Made in Denmark tournament in August 2017, and was second at the Hong Kong Open that year. He then went on to reach the season-ending DP World Tour Championships in 2017.

Funky habit

Rai, 24, winner of the Hong Kong Open in 2018 a year after Suri finished runner-up, has three titles on the European Challenge Tour, and his best world ranking has been 103. He is also well known for the slightly quirky habit of wearing gloves on both hands while playing.

Brar is the latest to catch the eye. The 22-year-old from Southampton, turned pro in late 2017. He won an event on the Alps Tour in Europe in 2018 and the same year he also won on the Challenge Tour and was Top-6 or better in five other events. That helped him qualify for the main European Tour this year.

Big potential

Duke University graduate Suri turned pro in 2013 and qualified for the Challenge Tour in 2016. A long-hitter, he is seen as a player with huge potential who played the British Open (T28) and PGA Championships (T19) in 2018 besides making several starts on the PGA Tour.

Suri, once world ranked 60^th, was also T8 at the Houston Open, for which he made the main field through Monday qualifiers.

While Rai is currently 13th on the Race to Dubai European Tour Order of Merit, Brar, who was T12 at the Kenya Open is 96th.

Suri has just returned to playing after being out of action since his appearance at the Turkish Airlines Open last November. He showed that he is on way back with a creditable T20 at the Maybank Championships in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday.

Also read: Sharma, Bhullar lead Indian challenge at Dubai Desert Classic