Indian Gaurav gunning for glory in Honda Masters
By Bobby Allan Wilson
DELHI, India (JP): For India's Gaurav Ghei, playing under pressure has never been a problem.
In fact, the greater the pressure the better he seems to perform, and the 28-year-old from New Delhi will be hoping that the burden of expectation this week will enable him to defend his title in the US$200,000 Hero Honda Masters over his home course at Delhi Golf Club.
After a distinguished amateur career that included representative honors in the Asian Games and Normura Cup, Ghei has gradually established himself as one of Asia's leading professionals on the strength of three outstanding performances.
He first caught the attention of Asia's golfing public in 1995 when he sensationally chipped in from 35 yards to win the Gadgil Western Masters. He followed this a year later by defeating European number one Colin Montgomerie during India's famous victory over Scotland in the 1996 Alfred Dunhill Cup at St. Andrew's. And earlier this year he became the first Indian golfer to successfully qualify and play in The British Open Championship.
"Obviously people will be expecting a lot of me this week because I'm playing at home and won this event last time it was held in '95," said Ghei, who finished tied for 18th in the Dubai Creek Open last week.
"I enjoy playing in big occasions and I'm not scared of the pressure, but I won't be thinking too much about it. It's a matter of confidence, and not allowing it to play on your mind. Although I wasn't hitting the ball particularly well in Dubai last week, I managed to score quite well and hopefully I'll be able to continue that this week."
Ghei is also impressed with the Delhi layout, and expects the scores to be higher than they were in 1995, when he won with a 14-under-par 274 aggregate.
"They've done a great job with the course over the past few months. The greens are in great shape and the fairways are much better than they were in 1995. There's a first cut of rough now and I expect this will take a lot off the scoring."
Playing alongside Ghei this week will be his teammates from St. Andrew's, Jeev Milkha Singh and Ali Sher. Singh has been in a rich vein of form over the past couple of months, recording three top-three finishes, which suggests it won't be long before he adds to his three Omega Tour titles.
Singh currently lies second on the Omega Order of Merit with $99,322 in prize money.
Also hoping to do well over the 6,751-yard layout is Australia's Adrian Percey, winner of last week's $250,000 Dubai Creek Open, and the current Omega Order of Merit leader, Mike Cunning of the United States.