The DLF Golf & Country Club test may render one of the most difficult in all of golf but for Shannon Tan the Delhi track is a happy hunting ground for a player renowned for her world-class accuracy tee-to-green.
In her first start at the Hero Women’s Indian Open in 2025, the Singaporean finished T2 behind Liz Young as just five players broke par in the 72-hole event. Fast forward 12 months and Tan went one better claiming a one-shot victory for her third title on the Ladies European Tour (LET).
With every right to feel confident, Tan is back in Delhi once again in 2026 looking to continue her excellent record at the challenging venue.
“It gives me a a lot confidence [knowing I have won here],” the 2025 Order of Merit winner said. “I know I like this golf course and it’s a course that suits my game – being a good ball-striker. Technically it should suit me. I feel comfortable here knowing I’ve got some sort of an advantage, just knowing that I can trust a lot of my shots. Being defending champion give me a lot confidence – knowing I’ve done it before means I can do it again.”
Tan is the favourite to hoist the trophy once again at this year’s Hero Women’s Indian Open with the Singaporean the highest ranked player in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings competing (she sits 59th). She also leads both driving accuracy and greens-in-regulation for the second year in a row this year with an impressive 83.95% and 80.60% respectively.
Standing in her way on the home front is Pranavi Urs. The 23-year-old Indian pipped Tan to the Gold Medal at the Asian Games in Japan a few weeks ago and the two have been paired together for rounds one and two.
“The fans here are great,” Tan said. “I mean, even just the past two days having people come up to me and being like, ‘oh, yeah, we watched you last year and you’ve had a great year this year, etc. etc!’ So I think the atmosphere will be great. I joked to Pranavi like surely we will play together. She’s just won the Asian Games and I’m defending champion.”
As for her form, Tan has enjoyed a fine second half of the season on the LET registering six top-10s since May to move up the Order of Merit into seventh position. Last week, following the Aramco Korea Championship where she finished T30, Tan was able to return home to Singapore for a much needed recovery week ahead of her title defence in India.
“I honestly took it easy,” the Singaporean said. “I had to force myself to because my wrist was also a little sore. I hate taking time off and I really struggle taking time off. But last I took it it easy which I knew I needed physically and mentally. I know I see this every year that I’m going to be more smart about the events I play.”
“It would be nice to win again this year and at the same time I’ll see if I can push for top-three on the Order of Merit.”
Tan gets her title defence under way at the 2026 Hero Women’s Indian Open on Thursday at 7:00 local time playing alongside home favourite Urs and 2017 champion Camille Chevalier from France. The full draw can be found here.
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