Domaine de Bel Ombre (Mauritius): India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar, who has fully recovered from his wrist injury, is raring to go at the $1.1 million Mauritius Open gets underway here on Thursday.

“I’m looking forward to a nice golfing holiday. I’m hitting the ball good in the past three months. I’m trying to get it right, it is just that I need to sort out a few things in my mind. Struggled a bit with my short game last month but it’s starting to get strong again. One of the reasons was the injury last year. I’m fully recovered and fully prepared for this year. The wrist caused some problem with the short game but I’m working hard and get back to what I used to be with the short game,” said Bhullar.

“It’s a great week. I came to the golf course yesterday, played a few holes and it’s a beautiful layout. The course is very picturesque, lots of beautiful holes. It’s the first time for a tri-sanctioned, which is good to open the door to international players. I think it will be great if we can come here more often. I played a bit of golf in this part of the world last year but it’s my first time to Mauritius,” he added.

“Playing more will help and I think I have to start believing in myself again. I played bad in the start of the year, maybe just doubting myself with the shorter clubs. Just need to get my confidence back and that will only happen when I play in more tournaments and working harder,” he said, adding that a top five or top-10 would be good, winning would be good this week. “The way I’m playing right now, I won’t be surprised if I’ll be able to do that on Sunday.”

“I’m very excited to see what Anirban (Lahiri) is doing internationally. Good to see the Indian flag waving at the WGCs and he deserves to be in that spot. He’s been playing well the last one and a half years and has been very consistent. I think that’s the place in the world’s top-50 and he deserves that. We both in a way inspire each other. It’s his time now to enjoy his limelight and I hope he stays there for the rest of his life and I hope he gets his PGA Tour card. He’s a great inspiration for me and I’m just going to keep working hard and do what people like Jeev (Milkha Singh) and Arjun (Atwal) have done in America,” said Bhullar.

Meanwhile young Rashid Khan said, “It’s been great, it’s my first time to Mauritius and I’m enjoying it. The view from the resort is amazing and I’m looking forward to the week. I think it’s important to see such new events come on board the Asian Tour. It’s really good that we have new tournaments in different countries this year. It gives us a chance to get to know the countries and it’s really good for the future of the game.”


“I think it’ll be fun this week playing with the other two Tours. I think we will see how we play against each other and I think I’ll just look forward to play in this event and try to learn from the other players. It’s a good sign that Asian Tour players are winning on European Tour sanctioned events, like Anirban (Lahiri) who has done so. It’s a good chance for anyone. If we can achieve this it will help take us up to the next level,” he added.


Veteran Arjun Atwal was also in awe for the beautiful place. “Landing here, you can see how clear the water is. It’s so exciting. It’s the first time being a tri-sanctioned tournament. It’s good to have all three Tours playing together. You get to see how the other players are doing and it just creates the opportunities for us. If one of us wins, it gives us a European Tour card. It’s a great opportunity,” he said, adding, “Obviously, it’s getting better on the Asian Tour every year. Back in the day, it was rare to see Asians Tour players win on the European Tour events. It was once in a while. Now if an Asian doesn’t win, it will be surprising. You know that one of our players can win anytime now.”