Staff WriterKeita Nakajima is excited to return to the Hero Indian Open as defending champion after securing a maiden DP World Tour title at DLF Golf and Country Club last season.
The Japanese dynamo, who stunned audiences with his wire-to-wire four‐shot triumph over home favourite Veer Ahlawat, Swede Sebastian Söderberg, and American Johannes Veerman on only his 11th DP World Tour start, is back in India with even bigger ambitions.
Fresh off a runner-up finish at last week’s Porsche Singapore Classic, Keita Nakajima has rocketed to 20th in the Race to Dubai Rankings.
At just 24, his eyes are now set on securing dual membership with the PGA TOUR—a challenge that seems as invigorating as it is within reach.
You can just feel the swagger in Keita Nakajima’s step right now—like a man who knows his putter is hot and his game’s got bite.
If he keeps rolling it the way he has, fans might want to buckle up… it’s going to be one hell of a ride.
Keita Nakajima: Last year, winning here was so great. It gave me a lot of confidence in my first season and also I was able to play all the way to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
This is a tough course. I’m very proud of how I played last year, and I will just remain patient again this year. I’m excited to play again in this tournament and honoured to be back as a defending champion. Of course, I want to win but it is a tough golf course so I have to just commit to one shot at a time.
Last week in Singapore, the performance was great. I had five or six weeks off, but I was prepared for this Asian swing. I finished second but I was playing great and I still feel positive this week. I will try to give my best performance this week.
I want to win this tournament again and I want to earn dual membership on the PGA TOUR next year by finishing inside the top ten on the Rankings. It’s five Japanese players playing on the PGA TOUR and this is so good for Japan.
Adding spice to the mix, England’s Richard Mansell has also emerged as a formidable contender. The buoyant golfer has ascended to the top of the Asian Swing Rankings after edging out Nakajima to claim his maiden DP World Tour victory in Singapore.
This budding rivalry doesn’t just crank up the competitive thermostat—it tees up a cracking showdown between rising star power and a player who’s finally figured out how to cash in on all that promise. It’s the kind of clash that makes golf downright thrilling.
Richard Mansell (ENG): No one warns you how tiring winning is but in a good way. It’s a lot of emotions. Years of hard work went into it and to finally get it done and have some family and friends there was really cool so now we move on to India.
I know this week is going to be really tricky, we’ve got a tough golf course, hot temperatures and it is tiring winning, it did take it out of me but I’m playing some good golf.
I’ve got one more week to prepare as well as I can to try and win another golf tournament and then I’ve got five weeks off to really celebrate.
I played here last year, it’s special. There are some amazing holes, there’s not a blade of grass out of place, you can see how much effort goes into the place. I think it’s a golf course you need to have some confidence on because if you’re not, you don’t want to be teeing it up.
I think the difference between 70 and 80 is not very much here, you can rack up numbers so it’s important to stay present and focused out here which is tricky with the extreme weather.
On home soil, the field bristles with local talent. Indian stars Shubhankar Sharma, S.S.P Chawrasia, Gaganjeet Bhullar, and Veer Ahlawat—who secured playing rights on the DP World Tour for 2025 after topping last year’s TATA Steel PGTI Ranking—are poised to make their mark.
Sharma, a two-time DP World Tour winner and currently the highest-ranked Indian player at 264th on the Official World Golf Ranking, and four-time champion Chawrasia, aiming for a third national open title following his back-to-back wins in 2016 and 2017, add local flair and fierce competition to the mix.
Now in its 2025 edition, the Hero Indian Open marks 17 years of partnership with Hero—a relationship as reliable as a fairway wood off the tee.
Hero MotoCorp, proudly rooted in New Delhi, has spent 24 straight years as the world’s top motorcycle and scooter manufacturer.
It’s a fitting backdrop for a tournament that mixes rich tradition with the kind of ambition that doesn’t mind twisting the throttle a bit.
As the second of four events on the Asian Swing—with back-to-back challenges lined up in China—the stakes are higher than ever.
For those chasing glory on the Asian Swing, there’s more than just a trophy on the line—DP World Tour members who crack the top three in the final standings punch their ticket to the 2025 US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.
Every swing out there will have that extra bit of tension in the grip, like the club knows what’s at stake.
And those putts? They’re not just for par anymore—they’re potential boarding passes to Quail Hollow and a seat at golf’s top table.
This isn’t just a tale of numbers on a scorecard—it’s a full-blooded yarn of ambition, rivalries, and the pure, unfiltered love of the game.
With Keita Nakajima leading the cavalry, fans are in for a wild ride through a field packed with seasoned campaigners and fresh-faced challengers.
It’s shaping up to be a tournament loaded with both theatre and thunder.
