Gaganjeet Bhullar. File picture from his last win at 2018 Fiji International. Pic: Asian Tour/ Australasian Tour
New Delhi, Sep 6: Gaganjeet Bhullar, one of India’s most successful golfers, will finally return to action after more than six months, when he plays the DDF Irish Open and continue on the European Tour.
The Irish Open will be played at Galgorm Castle Golf Course from Sept 24-27, 2020.
Bhullar who has nine Asian Tour wins, one of which, the Fiji International, was co-sanctioned by the European and Australasian Tour, last played in Malaysian Open on the Asian Tour in February.
Prior to the start in Malaysia, Bhullar featured in four starts on the European Tour beginning with the Desert Swing, where he missed cut in Dubai, but made the weekend in Abu Dhabi and Saudi International with finishes of T-50 and T-67. Four weeks later he missed the cut in Oman.
During the pandemic, Bhullar had played in a charity match in July alongside Shubhankar Sharma and cricketers Kapil Dev and Murali Kartik at the Delhi Golf Club.
The DDF Irish Open at Galgorm Castle will be the first of the four events in the second UK swing and carries through the ASI Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, the BMW PGA at Wentworth and the Scottish Championship at Fairmont, St. Andrews.
The 2020 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open was originally scheduled to take place at Mount Juliet Estate in County Kilkenny from May 28-31, but was postponed on March 30 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
With quarantine restrictions for travellers into the Republic of Ireland ongoing and the ban on mass gatherings still in place, the European Tour made the decision to move the tournament to Northern Ireland where it will be subject to similar guidelines to the current ‘UK Swing’ events, including being played behind closed doors. Planning remains on-going for the tournament to return to Mount Juliet in 2021 providing all health guidelines in place at that time can be met.
Following the changes to the date and the venue, allied to the overall disruption to the schedule, the 2020 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open will have a prize fund of €1.25 million and therefore will not be part of the Rolex Series.
The Dubai Duty Free Irish Open will, however, continue to drive Ireland’s status as a future Ryder Cup host country, the synergy even stronger given the fact that now, the centenary of The Ryder Cup and the centenary of the Irish Open both fall in 2027.
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