PGTI and DP World launch Race to DP World India Championship

The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) and DP World launched the Race to DP World India Championship in New Delhi on Monday, a season-long competition intended to restructure India’s professional golf calendar to align with the DP World Tour. The announcement establishes a new points series that will determine qualification and season honours across nine events.

Under the revised structure, the 2026 Order of Merit champion will be decided only after the completion of the season-ending DP World India Championship, to be held in October, rather than continuing through the end of the calendar year. The Race will comprise nine tournaments staged through the season, with cumulative standings determining entry and retention stakes. Organisers framed the change as an alignment with the DP World Tour schedule and a reordering of when season honours are finalised.

The opening trio of events — the J&K Open, the Coal India Open and the Kolar Open — were played in the first three weeks of August. The Race will conclude with its ninth and final stop, the inaugural Kapil Dev Invitational Tour Championship in Greater Noida from September 30 to October 3. The DP World India Championship will follow in October as the season-ending tournament after those nine Race events.

Qualification and retention were specified as central outcomes of the Race format: the top 24 players at the end of the Race will earn spots at the DP World India Championship. Separately, the top 60 on the PGTI Order of Merit will retain their playing rights for 2027, as set out by the tour’s new structure.

PGTI president Kapil commented on the initiative, saying: “The Race to DP World India Championship reflects our shared vision of strengthening the pathway from Indian golf to the global stage. It introduces a season-long contest which will reward consistency, raise the competitive standards throughout the season and enhance the significance of the DP World India Championship,” PGTI president Kapil said.

The immediate fixtures to note are the remaining Race events culminating in the Kapil Dev Invitational Tour Championship in Greater Noida from September 30 to October 3, after which the DP World India Championship in October will determine the 2026 Order of Merit champion.