Four-time Major winner, Rory McIlroy is set to make his professional debut in India later this year after the DP World Tour reportedly completed an agreement in principle for Delhi Golf Club to host a $5 million Rolex event.
Per The Hindustan Times, Delhi Golf Club will welcome the most expensive golf tournament in the country's history - in terms of prize money - for the first time between October 16-19, with an initial three-year deal in place.
An official contract is expected to be signed by the DP World Tour’s Chief Tournament and Operations Officer, Ben Cowen during a visit on January 22, capping off a run of negotiations which are said to have begun back in October 2024.
If verified, the as-yet-unnamed Indian tournament would be the penultimate competition prior to the DP World Tour playoffs, with the Genesis Championship in Korea - which does not currently have a confirmed location - rounding off the regular season just days after (October 23-26).
And speaking to The Hindustan Times, Delhi Golf Club captain, Vikram Seth is confident the current World No.3 will be a part of the field.
The iconic Delhi Golf Club (DGC) is set to host a $5 million @DPWorldTour event in October with former world No.1 and four-time Major winner #RoryMcIlroy in attendance.@htTweets https://t.co/IAkJm5gn2gJanuary 10, 2025
He said: “It’ll be a completely new event on the European calendar. It’s a major coup for the DGC which has been made possible by the efforts of our president Raj Khosla.
“It’s a shot in the arm for the club that has not hosted a major international event for two years. Hero Indian Open, the other DP World Tour event in the country, has a prize purse of $2.25 million. So, with $5 million in prize money, we are expecting the who’s who of international golf to come to India.
"We have placed a special request to get Rory McIlroy to India and we are confident that he’ll show up."
Speaking about the potential a unified global tour could fulfil back in January 2024, McIlroy pointed to India as an obvious location for a world-class golf tournament to take place in.
He said: "You know, if this global tour somehow comes to fruition in the next few years, could you imagine bringing the best 70 or 80 golfers in the world to India for a tournament or, you know, that - I think would change the game and the perception of the game in a country like that."
The four-time Major winner went on to admit that he had never been to the country before but would love to have the chance one day - something he could foresee happening if his calendar allowed.
McIlroy said: "With how the golf calendar is at the minute - and that's the other thing that needs to be looked at. There's so many different golf tournaments that happen at different times, and it's going to be very hard for everything to piece together, but it's a country that I've never been to and one that I would like to visit at some point in my life."
Should the DP World Tour's newest tournament be confirmed, it would become the second Indian event of the year after the Hero Indian Open - set to take place between March 27-30 at DLF Golf and Country Club.
The prestigious rival to DGC will share European and Asian Tour responsibilities in 2025 after the Asian Tour agreed a deal with DLF to host the first-ever International Series India in a few weeks' time.
Between January 30 and February 2, Bryson DeChambeau will make his maiden appearance in the country as the Asian Tour's International Series kick off.
Ahead of the DP World Tour's season continuing at the Dubai Desert Classic next week, a handful of details in the circuit's 2025 schedule remain incomplete.
There is a gap between April 24-27 - a period during the Asian Swing - with no locked-in tournament while the same is true towards the end of the Closing Swing between August 7-10.
Plus, as previously mentioned, the Genesis Championship in Korea also has no home while a gap in the schedule currently exists the week before.
A spokesperson for the DP World Tour said: “Any updates to our 2025 global schedule will be announced in due course.”
