Gaganjeet Bhullar’s driving accuracy

August 17, 2014

Halfway through the golfing season, Gaganjeet Bhullar is riding high on his driver. The 277th ranked Indian is fourth best in terms of driving accuracy among golfers on the European Tour. Bhullar has played 19 events this season making an average of 10.8 fairways per each round of golf. Adilson Da Silva leads the charts, with a success rate of 81.3% compared to 77% for the Indian. Unfortunately though, Bhullar’s putters have been far from obedient, causing the golfer to settle for 131st position in the race to Dubai.

On the strength of his driving – Bhullar is 17th in terms of distance as well – the Indian should have been in a strong position to fire himself to some low scoring cards. However, despite making 12.3 greens in regulation per round, Bhullar hasn’t been able to convert his fairway success into tangible results. The 26 year old from Amritsar has been two putting far too consistently to make a meaningful impact.

This is an area he would like to address in order to further his chances of greater glory on the European Tour. Bhullar has been needing just over 30 putts per round, resulting in a stroke average of 72.12 per round. It is an average that leaves him at 138th on the table, nearly explaining his position in the race to Dubai. With his score hovering at over 72, Bhullar is in a constant struggle to make par on most courses.

In contrast, Anirban Lahiri, India’s highest ranked golfer has been averaging 70.06 per round accounting for much better success on the tour. However, Lahiri’s numbers are from the Asian Tour. The European Tour scoring averages are lead by Rory McIlroy, who takes 69.43 strokes to get through 18 holes. Henrik Stenson is second with an average of 69.87 ahead of Jaco Van Zyl and Sergio Garcia.

Shiv Kapur is 33rd in terms of scoring average with 70.86 per round and 22nd on the driving accuracy chart. He is making the fairway with a 68.9% success rate. But that is nothing to sneer at – after all, McIlroy for all his success is only making 61.1% of the fairways. But the Northern Irishman has a remarkable ability to get up and down from those situations with a calm consistency that betrays his young age.

Feature by Anand Datla

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