Gurugram, March 26, 2026: While Freddy Schott of Germany set the bar at six-under 66 inround one of the US$ 2.55 million Hero Indian Open 2026, Veer Ahlawat emerged as thebest-placed Indian with an even-par 72 on day one.Schott enjoyed a one-shot lead at the top as defending champion Eugenio Chacarra of Spainwas placed second at five-under 67 at the magnificent DLF Golf & Country Club.Veer Ahlawat, the 2024 DP World PGTI Order of Merit champion, had the best day amongthe Indians. He mixed six birdies with two bogeys and two double-bogeys to be placed tied32nd at his home course.Teenager Kartik Singh, 2023 DP World PGTI Order of Merit champion Om Prakash Chouhanand Kshitij Naveed Kaul were the next highest placed Indians in tied 41st place with scores ofone-over 73. India’s Mohd Azhar, one hole away from completing his first round, was also atone-over.Shubhankar Sharma and Rayhan Thomas returned cards of 77 to be placed tied 98th alongwith star attraction Akshay Bhatia of the United States. Reigning DP World PGTI Order ofMerit champion Yuvraj Sandhu’s opening round score of 80 placed him tied 125th.Thirty-year-old Veer Ahlawat, playing in familiar conditions at his home course, played moreaggressively than he usually does at DLF in round one, by his own admission. On a calm daywhen wind didn’t play much of a part, the 2024 Indian Open runner-up collected earlybirdies on the first and fourth holes. Ahlawat then had a horrid time between the sixth andthe ninth where he dropped two bogeys and a double-bogey after finding a hazard and awater body each.
Veer then fared better on the back-nine where he made a chip-in and three longconversions from a range of 15 to 30 feet to pick up four birdies. He had a solitary bogey onthe back-nine.Veer said, “Generally, I am not as aggressive on day one at DLF. But because there was nowind today, I was determined to post a low score and was a bit too aggressive. However, inthe process, I ended up dropping a few shots. I wanted to make all the four Par-5s count.But I couldn’t achieve that today. I dropped shots after very good drives on a couple ofoccasions.“I know this course well and I’m familiar with this largely European field having played onthe DP World Tour just last season. So, I’m quite at home playing in this environment andhope to make the most of my good driving form over the next three days.”Sixteen-year-old PGTI Q School graduate Kartik Singh made four birdies, two bogeys and atriple-bogey on Thursday.“I had one bad hole where I made a triple but other than that, I played pretty solid and wasable to keep the ball in the fairway which is really important on this course on most of theholes.“So that’s going to be my plan tomorrow, to just keep it in the fairway and hopefully notmake any big numbers because on this course you need to avoid that.”PGTI thanks its Title Partner DP World and its Tour Partners Amul, Axis Bank, Campa,Amrutanjan Electro Plus, Golf Plus Monthly and Golf Design India, for their support ingrowing the tour.