Rory McIlroy is setting foot on new soil this week as he headlines the inaugural DP World India Championship, marking his first-ever appearance in India. The World Number Two, fresh off Europe’s historic Ryder Cup victory in New York, continues his mission to take his game across continents and now, into the heart of South Asia.
The $4 million event at Delhi Golf Club, title-partnered by DP World and co-sanctioned by the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), has drawn one of the most impressive international fields ever assembled in the country. Alongside McIlroy are fellow European Ryder Cup stars Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland, and their captain Luke Donald, joined by American major winner Brian Harman and PGA TOUR victor Ben Griffin.
The field also features nearly 30 Indian professionals, including two-time DP World Tour winner Shubhankar Sharma, 18-time global winner Anirban Lahiri, seven-time winner Shiv Kapur, and Veer Ahlawat, who secured his 2025 DP World Tour card after topping the previous PGTI Rankings.
.Player QuotesÂ
Rory McIlroy:Â It’s great to be here, first and foremost. India is a country that I’ve wanted to travel to for a long time.
I’m excited to play a golf tournament in a place that I’ve never played before. 18-odd years into a professional career and to still be able to do things for the first time is something that excites me.
I’ve watched tournaments on this golf course over the years on TV, and you know, the course certainly lives up to its reputation. I’m excited to get out there and take it on this week. Just excited to get going and can’t wait to play in front of a lot of Indian fans that will hopefully be out there over the next few days.
I’d say that the next time I hit my driver will be in Abu Dhabi (in November). I don’t think I’ll hit a driver this week. I just don’t feel like the risk is worth the reward. I’d rather leave myself two or three clubs back and hit a 7-iron into a par 4 instead of hitting a wedge where if you just get it off-line here and the ball is gone. You’re hitting it into jungle and you’re not going to be able to get it out. You can rack up a very big number very quickly.
So being strategic and being smart with your play off the tee, especially, is very important. I can see why S.S.P. (Chawrasia) has done so well around here. You just keep hitting it down the middle, hit it 260, 250, 260 every single time, and if you do that, then you can do very well around this golf course.
Tommy Fleetwood: It is nice to be back. It’s been nine years; I was struggling back here back in 2016. That was my last time. So it’s great to come back.
It’s been a really good year. I think overall, throughout the year, especially the summer, I think I played very consistently, and worked on my game really well. And then just the last month or so, I managed to get that win on the PGA TOUR. It seemed like a really big thing, a big story, and the Ryder Cup came. Just being a part of that winning team was something that was very special.
So yeah, 2025 has been filled with a lot of good things, but there’s still three more events to go. So just focused on now and trying to make sure I finish as strong as I can.
Hopefully we can put on a good showcase of the sport (this week). You know, we have a lot of great players. The DP World Tour is an amazing tour, and hopefully we can showcase the sport in the best possible way.
I honestly think success here would be seeing growth in the game in the country, seeing a lot of interest, at all levels and at all ages. You know, this could be an amazing point in where we can grow the game and get as many people into it as possible. You can look as far ahead into the future as you want and start reaching for the stars.
Viktor Hovland:Â Â It’s very nice. It has a cool feel, especially seeing some old buildings and some ruins and stuff. I think that’s really cool. It kind of gives me a little bit of a Mayakoba feel, and I’ve had some success there, so already good vibes being here.
This is not a place a lot of us players have been to before and played golf. Looking forward to just kind of seeing how it goes, and hopefully a lot of people will come out and cheer for us and kind of get to see the best players in the world up close. I think it’s really cool.
I took about a week and a half off after the Ryder Cup and didn’t really touch a club, and then was kind of running out of time a little bit to make a decision if I wanted to come here or not. I played two 18-hole rounds in a row back-to-back, and my neck felt okay, so I decided to fly over here and give it a chance.
I think one of the big things, you don’t have to hit driver out here, very much at least. That definitely helps my neck because it’s definitely the driver, I think, that gives me the biggest amount of pain. Hopefully we’ll stick to the 3-iron, and the neck will be fine.
About DP World
DP World is reshaping the future of global trade to improve lives everywhere. Operating across six continents with a team of over 100,000 employees, we combine global infrastructure and local expertise to deliver seamless supply chain solutions. From Ports and Terminals to Marine Services, Logistics and Technology, we leverage innovation to create better ways to trade, minimizing disruptions from the factory floor to the customer’s door.
Our global sports partnerships in Golf, Cricket, Formula 1 and Sailing showcase our leadership in supply chain transformation. From delivering SailGP to supporting the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup and The Ryder Cup, DP World simplifies logistics, drives performance and changes what’s possible.
About the DP World Tour
The DP World Tour is the main men’s professional golf tour of the European Tour group.
As golf’s global tour, we showcase global talent in global destinations and use our platform to build, entertain and connect our global community.
GLOBAL TALENT:Â We provide pathways and a platform for the leading international talent, bringing together golfing icons, national heroes and emerging stars from around the world.
GLOBAL DESTINATIONS: We stage tournaments in iconic cities and locations around the world and each week we celebrate and showcase the rich diversity of the courses, cities and cultures we visit.
GLOBAL COMMUNITY:Â We build, entertain and connect communities through our commitment to innovation, creative content and having a positive social and environmental impact.
Our 2025 Global Schedule features 42 tournaments in 26 different countries and comprises three distinct phases: five ‘Global Swings’, the ‘Back 9’ and the ‘DP World Tour Play-Offs’. It features five Rolex Series events – the premium category of events on the DP World Tour – and four Major Championships, all of which count towards the Race to Dubai Rankings, the Tour’s season-long competition which concludes at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
DP World, the leading provider of global smart end-to-end supply chain and logistics solutions, has been the title partner of the DP World Tour since the start of the 2022 season, the Tour’s 50th season following its formation in 1972.
We also enjoy the support of many of the world’s leading business brands with DP World, Rolex, Aldar, BMW, Buffalo Trace Distillery, Emirates, Fortinet and Vestas as Official Partners.
About the European Tour group
The European Tour group administers the DP World Tour, the HotelPlanner Tour, the Legends Tour and the G4D Tour and, as the Managing Partner of Ryder Cup Europe LLP, stages golf’s greatest team contest, the Ryder Cup, in partnership with the PGA of America.
The European Tour group has Strategic Partnerships with the PGA TOUR, the Sunshine Tour, the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, the China Golf Association (CGA), the Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO), the Korea Professional Golfers’ Association (KPGA), and the TATA Steel Professional Golf Tour of India. These partnerships provide global pathways for players from across the world to compete internationally on the DP World Tour, the main men’s professional golf Tour of the European Tour group which was established in 1972, as well as the HotelPlanner Tour.
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