As Shubhankar Sharma and Anirban Lahiri lead the Indian charge at the PGA Championship -- the last of the year's four majors in men's golf, beginning on August 9 -- their nearest-ranked compatriot Gaganjeet Bhullar will be putting his feet up at home in Kapurthala, rooting for them.
Having picked up a maiden European Tour title in Fiji over the weekend, Bhullar will also be busy preparing for the rest of the season in Europe, where he now has a permanent card till the end of 2019, to go with a jump of 49 ranking places to 114.
"I don't know if I think that far," says the 30-year-old Bhullar, when asked if winning a title on the European Tour was akin to getting a monkey off the back for him, an eight-time winner on the Asian Tour. "These kind of things sound good in a headline or in an article," he says. "Trust me, none of these golfers ever think about these things. They do mention it in their interviews, but once we are on the course, we are in a zone. I always trusted myself that I could win on the European Tour."
Bhullar turned professional while still in his teens -- he would team up with Lahiri, among others, to pick up the team silver at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha as an amateur -- and the closest he had come to a European Tour title before was when South African Thomas Aiken pipped him to the Avantha Masters in 2013. That performance had taken him to a career-best ranking of 85, but his form had been indifferent since, with a good 2016 followed by an inconsistent calendar year following that.
"I don't want to sound arrogant or anything, but even before starting the week [in Fiji] I had a little feeling that I am going to have a good finish. I had been playing well the past two months, and my good form was leading into a good momentum, and it was leading towards a good ending," he says about three top-five finishes -- two of them just behind the champion -- in South Korea, Thailand and Bangkok since the start of May. "I was hitting the ball well [and] the dynamics and technicality of my swing, all were on my side."
Bhullar's consistency over the weekend at the Natadola Bay golf course was phenomenal -- he ended with 14-under and struck three-under or better in three of the four rounds. The final round produced six-under or better for everyone in the top four, including Ernie Els, and Bhullar had to stave off a nine-under score from runner-up Anthony Quayle of Australia -- all of it during his first outing at the course. "Of course, playing a course for the first time is a little different," he says. "The thing is, we guys don't think too much about these kind of things because either it's a par-4 or a par-3 or a par-5. There's no fourth option. Either it's a straight hole, a dogleg right or dogleg left. We must have played some sort of hole in similar conditions somewhere in our careers."
The seeming inability of Indians to close out titles outside Asia doesn't surprise Bhullar, only the sixth Indian to have won on the European Tour after Jeev Milkha Singh, SSP Chawrasia, Arjun Atwal, Lahiri and Sharma. "What happens is we are so used to these conditions -- this is where we grow up -- and the Americans and Europeans, when they come to Asia, they have no clue how to play in this weather," he says. "What happens for us is, ironically or unfortunately, the biggest golf tours are played outside Asia. In a way, one has to learn how to play there over a period of years."
Bhullar says despite his good form, it is hard for him to pinpoint any one aspect of his game that has come together in recent weeks. "This game is so funny," he says. "The weeks I have felt very good on the golf course, I have not played well. The weeks I go out there and try to enjoy every moment, I end up playing well. I am still trying to figure out this sport."
Bhullar was 21 when he played The Open in 2009, and his record as the youngest Indian to have played a men's major remains unconquered even with Sharma's recent run. Bhullar also knows an improved ranking will allow him to play all four majors in 2019. It will be a presence of Indian golfers like never before on the sport's biggest stage.
But for the moment, those plans can wait.
"The only goal this year was to get my European Tour card back, which I am happy I did. I am glad that the responsibility now is even bigger, and the goal is to play well on the European Tour week in, week out. That's it."