Gaganjeet Bhullar has two titles in his bag already and he has now set his sights higher. Coming in fresh from his win at the Venetian Macau Open, Bhullar, knows that even the Asian Tour Order of Merit is within his reach this season.
For the moment his sights are set on the Hero Indian Open this week. “It is always a matter of pride to play and win the National Open. Last year I was unwell and I want to make up for that,” said Bhullar. The Asian Tour is in Bangalore this week for the $1.25 million Hero Indian Open where title holder David Gleeson of Australia will lead an elite cast along with hometown heroes that include three-time Indian Open winner, Jyoti Randhawa, Bangalore’s very own Anirban Lahiri, Shiv Kapur, Himmat Rai and former champion C Muniyappa, also from the Karnataka Golf Association course, where the event will be held this week.
“The two wins, multiple category right now, winning the Order of Merit would be nice,” said Bhullar, who moved to fifth place on the Order of Merit after earning $118,875 from his fourth Asian Tour victory in Macau. Three Indians have won the Asian Tour Order of Merit in the past – Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun Atwal (2003) and Jeev Milkha Singh (2006 and 2008) – and now Bhullar feels he is ready to join that elite group.
Like many of his generation who grew up playing golf, Bhullar looked up to a host of golf greats to inspire him to reach the upper echelons of the game. Korea’s KJ Choi and American Ben Curtis are names that resonate well with Bhullar and the three played together recently at the CJ Invitational in Korea.
“There’re a lot of big weeks coming up. Singapore, Hong Kong, Johor and the Indian Open, Obviously, it’s not that far (from his position on the Order of Merit) and a few good weeks can help my ranking reach number one,” added Bhullar.
“Jeev has set targets for us and I would say we need to work really hard.”