So, I as get ready for the 2007 edition, I want to focus on the positives and take it from there. It was around this time last year that I had begun doing well on the Asian Tour and after last week’s result in Korea where I finished 30 in tough conditions, I am feeling very confident.

I arrived in from Korea on Monday and had a taste of the Delhi Golf Club yesterday and today. It is in the best shape I have ever seen. It will be a pleasure and a challenge to tackle it.

Coming to the event itself, it is a half-a-million-dollar meet. In the days when I was growing up in Kolkata, the Indian Open used to come to Kolkata in alternate years. But now it is usually in Delhi, not that I mind playing in Delhi or at DGC, which is a great venue.

The course has been set up in a manner, which will reward straight play and penalise any errors, when you miss the fairway. The rough is punishing and at times the bushes are almost right next to the narrow fairway leaving no margin for error. So getting your tee shots will be the key.

It is great to see Jeev Milkha Singh teeing up at the Indian Open. He has been a trailblazer for Indian golf along with Jyoti Randhawa. The duo will naturally be the favourites. But mind you, there is also Gaurav Ghei, always a wily customer at DGC, where he has grown up.

As for foreign challenge, there is Thaworn Wiratchant, one of the finest golfers to have come from our Tour. He recently won in China and showed that he is great form. Add to him the likes of Chapchai Nirat, Taiwan’s Lu Wen Teh and Mardan Mamat, who won in 2004.

I am sure my old teammate in amateur golf, Ashok Kumar, Mukesh Kumar and Vijay Kumar are always a threat. All in all, it should be a great week and I hope to be somewhere there in the thick of action over the weekend.