First Time Ever! No Indian Golfers Make The Cut For Royal Portrush Open

Last Updated:July 14, 2025, 19:34 IST

Excitement at the Open Championship centers on Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. No Indian golfers will feature in 2025, despite Shubhankar Sharma's strong past performances.

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma (X)

The excitement surrounding this week’s Open Championship is focused on Rory McIlroy, who is chasing a career Grand Slam, 2019 champion Shane Lowry, and the stunning venue of Royal Portrush.

Unfortunately, no Indian golfers will feature at the 2025 Open, a notable absence given recent strong performances by Shubhankar Sharma. Sharma delivered India’s best-ever result at the Open with a T-8 finish at Royal Liverpool in 2023, and followed that with a T-19 at Royal Troon the following year.

The record for most Open appearances by an Indian belongs to Anirban Lahiri with six. Sharma, meanwhile, holds the distinction of being the only Indian to play at Portrush, which he did in 2019, finishing T-51 in just his second Open appearance. Impressively, Sharma has made the cut in all four of his Open starts, the most for any Indian golfer.

To date, eight Indians have competed at The Open:

• Gaurav Ghei
• Jyoti Randhawa
• Jeev Milkha Singh
• Arjun Atwal
• Shiv Kapur
• Gaganjeet Bhullar
• Anirban Lahiri
• Shubhankar Sharma

Although no players from India are in the field this year, three competitors with Indian heritage are making their presence felt on the global stage:

• Akshay Bhatia (World No. 38)
• Sahith Theegala (World No. 46)
• Aaron Rai (World No. 34)

Bhatia and Theegala, both Indian Americans, were born in the U.S. after their families emigrated from India. Rai, an Indo-British golfer, traces his roots to his Indian grandparents.

All three have secured victories on the PGA Tour and were part of the elite field at the 2024 PGA Tour Championship—open only to the top 30 players on the FedEx Cup rankings.

As of now:

• Bhatia sits at 44th in the FedEx Cup standings
• Rai is ranked 56th
• Theegala, recovering from a neck injury, is at 138th

To qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, players must be in the top 70. That list will be narrowed down to top 50 for the second playoff event and finally to top 30 for the Tour Championship.

(with PTI inputs)

Siddarth Sriram

After training in the field of broadcast media, Siddarth, as a sub-editor for News18 Sports, currently dabbles in putting together stories, from across a plethora of sports, onto a digital canvas. His long-term...Read More

After training in the field of broadcast media, Siddarth, as a sub-editor for News18 Sports, currently dabbles in putting together stories, from across a plethora of sports, onto a digital canvas. His long-term...

Read More

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