The 10 Best Indian Golfers Of All Time

an image of anirban lahiri teeing off with an inset of jeev milkha singh — India has produced some fabulous golfers

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Diksha Dagar

The deaf left-hander became the second Indian winner on the Ladies European Tour when she won the 2019 South African Women's Open at just 18 years old. She added a second individual title at the 2023 Czech Ladies Open after she had also won a team trophy at the 2021 Aramco Team Series in London.

Gaganjeet Bhullar

Gaganjeet Bhullar holds the record for the most Asian Tour titles by an Indian golfer with 11 victories. He secured his record-breaking title at the BNI Indonesian Masters in November 2023, which also placed him behind only Thailand's Thaworn Wiratchant (18 wins) and Thongchai Jaidee (13 wins) for total victories.

Anirban Lahiri

In his first Major appearance, in The Open of 2012, he carded a hole-in-one at Royal Lytham and St Annes’ 9th hole en route to his tied 31st finish. At the PGA Championship of 2015, he achieved the highest finish by an Indian in a Major, when he ended tied for 5th. That year he also became the first Indian picked for the Presidents Cup.

Shubhankar Sharma

Aged just 21, he won the European Tour/Asian Tour/Sunshine Tour tri-sanctioned Joburg Open in 2017. Two months later, in February 2018, his final round 62 secured him the Maybank Championship, his second and, to date, final DP World Tour win.

Later that year he became the youngest Indian to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit, at age 22. His tied finish at Royal Liverpool in 2023 marked the best-ever finish by an Indian golfer at The Open Championship.

Mukesh Kumar

He has won the Order of Merit for the Indian Tour six times. No-one else has won it more than three times. He won the PGA Tour of India Order of Merit for three consecutive seasons from the 2000/01 season, and then won back-to-back titles from 2004 to 2006.

He then won its successor, the Professional Golf Tour of India, in 2007/08. In December 2016, aged 51, Kumar won his first and only Asian Tour event, the Panasonic Open India, and his last Professional Golf Tour of India win was as a 53-year-old.

S.S.P. Chawrasia

Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia has excelled on home turf. All four of his European Tour wins were co-sanctioned events with the Asian Tour, and all were won in India. He gets maximum value from his wins, as his six victories on the Asian Tour also include another co-sanctioned event, this time with the Professional Golf Tour of India.

He won the Indian Open in 2016 and 2017, having previously had four runner-up finishes in his national open, including two losing play-offs.

Jyoti Randhawa

He holds the record for the most Indian Open titles by an Indian golfer, with three. When he won the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit in 2002, he was the first Indian to do so. He has eight wins on the Asian Tour. He also played on the European Tour, with his best results on it being his five runner-up finishes.

Arjun Atwal

When he won the Wyndham Championship in 2010, he became the first and, to date, only Indian-born winner on the PGA Tour. He had previously lost a five-man playoff, won by Phil Mickelson, for the BellSouth Classic in 2005.

Between 1999 and 2014, he also had three victories on the European Tour and eight on the Asian Tour. He topped the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit in 2003.

arjun atwal with the trophy at the 2010 wyndham championship — Atwal with the Wyndham Championship trophy in 2010

Aditi Ashok

In winning the Hero Women’s Indian Open in 2016, she became the first Indian winner on the Ladies European Tour. She has won a further four times on it.

She represented India at the 2020 Olympics and was in the silver medal position after three rounds, but slipped down to fourth at the end of the four-round tournament, two shots behind gold medalist Nelly Korda.

She is the only Indian woman to break into the top 50 of the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings, reaching a peak of 40th position in February 2024.

Jeev Milkha Singh

He pioneered Indian golf internationally. He was the first Indian to break into the top 100, and then the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking, and in March 2009 went to world number 28, the highest ranking achieved by an Indian.

In 1997, he finished seventh at the European Tour Qualifying School, thereby becoming the first Indian to join the European Tour. His stellar season was in 2006 when he won twice on the European Tour, at the Volvo China Open and the Volvo Masters. He finished 16th on the European Tour’s Order of Merit and won the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit.

The following year, he became the first Indian to play in The Masters, and in 2008 he became the first to be placed in the top 10 at a Major, with his tied 9th finish at the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills.

That season, he won his second Asian Tour Order of Merit and, in earning $1.45 million, was the first player to win more a million dollars in single season on the Asian Tour. He also ended that season 12th on the European Tour’s Order of Merit.

Contributing Writer Roderick is the author of the critically acclaimed comic golf novels, Summer At Tangents, which was one of Country Life magazine's Books of The Year for 2024 and nominated for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, and Crime Wave At Tangents. Golf courses and travel are Roderick’s particular interests. He writes travel articles and general features for the magazine and website and compiles the magazine's crossword. He is a member of Trevose and has played golf in around two dozen countries. Cricket is his other main sporting love. He is also the author of five non-fiction books, four of which are still in print: The Novel Life of PG Wodehouse; The Don: Beyond Boundaries; Wally Hammond: Gentleman & Player and England’s Greatest Post-War All Rounder.