Arjun Atwal bursts onto PGA TOUR Champions scene with lofty goals

Arjun Atwal was playing in only his fifth PGA TOUR Champions event when he jumped into contention at the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links last month.

Atwal, who turned 50 in March, carded consecutive rounds of 4-under 68 to enter Sunday’s final round just two strokes out of the lead of Justin Leonard.

Atwal was attempting to become the first player since Dicky Pride at the 2021 Mitsubishi Electric Classic to win as an open qualifier. Neither Leonard nor Atwal was able to close the deal for his first PGA TOUR Champions win. They were thwarted by another international player, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, who won for the second time as a member of the Champions Tour.

Atwal said his game started coming together during the Tuesday qualifier.

“I found something, especially on the greens,” Atwal said. "I found my putting stroke and started making some key putts, and that carried over to the weekend. And my ball-striking was pretty OK.

“It meant a lot (to earn his first top 10, a tie for third). It was only my fifth start on this tour and I needed to do something to get my foot in the door.”

The high finish made him automatically exempt for this weekend’s CONSTELLATION Furyk and Friends event in Jacksonville, Florida. It also moved Atwal up 36 places in the Charles Schwab Cup standings to 65th, putting him well inside the line to play in the first of the three playoff events, the Dominion Energy Charity Classic. But he’ll have some work to do to make it to the TimberTech Championship, the second playoff event, which is for only the top 54 in the money standings.

A good week at the Furyk event would be a big help, since Atwal will have to try to qualify to get into the following week’s SAS Championship.

Atwal, the first native of India to win on the PGA TOUR (2010 Wyndham Championship), said he began thinking about playing on the Champions Tour when he was 48.

“I was still playing the PGA TOUR with past champions status, making a cut here and there,” Atwal said. “I figured I’d just keep playing and see what happens when I turned 50. I knew I wouldn’t be fully exempt, but I tried to stay healthy.

“You look forward to playing out here. All the people I know are on this tour. They’re the guys I am used to playing with. That was the main motivation. And everyone I talked to said how much fun this tour is. I want to give it a good four or five years and then call it a day.”

Atwal’s outlook is different than most of his counterparts who want to play out their careers for as long as they can. Instead, he’s hoping to grab some cash and head home to India, where he hopes to grow the game.

“The game needs to grow there,” Atwal said. “It just hasn’t taken off the way I thought it would after my win and Anirban (Lahiri, a former member of the PGA TOUR) coming over here. It needs to be pushed a little bit.

“It will have to be done through our government. They have to get involved. The private sector can’t do it themselves. I’m trying to build my contacts. Hopefully by the time I’m ready to do it, I’ll have a lot. I know a lot of people involved in junior golf over there. They’re a bunch of my friends I grew up with and they’re teaching and doing what they can. Real estate and golf itself are very expensive. We have to figure out how can we deal with that.”

India is the most populous country in the world, just ahead of China. Other major sports have tried to tap into India as a potential fertile ground for recruiting into their sports, but it never really has materialized.

Atwal, who makes his home in Orlando but has a place in India, said that he’ll split time between the United States and India equally once he’s done on the Champions Tour and makes the commitment.

Until then, he’s eager to compete and see what he can do.

“I know I can win out here. I’ve done it before,” Atwal said. “My last win of any kind was in Dubai in 2014 (the Asian Tour’s Dubai Open). So it was different to be in contention at Pebble. It felt great though, I’m not gonna lie. We’ll see how I handle it going forward. The more you do it, the better you’ll be.”