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Born as Indian Open in 1964 and played at the Delhi Golf Club, the tournament was the brainchild of five-time British Open winner Peter Thomson who took up the issue of an international golf tournament with the Indian Golf Union. Thomson, who won the event thrice (1964, 1966 and 1976), was a regular feature and also got top players like Guy Wolstenholme, Angel Miguel and Graham Marsh to participate in the event.
In 1970, the Indian Open became a part of the Asian Golf Circuit and the field became stronger and stronger thereafter. In 1991, Ali Sher broke the stranglehold of foreign players when he became the first Indian professional to win this prestigious tournament. Since then a number of top Indian pros like Feroze Ali (1998), Arjun Atwal (1999), Jyoti Randhawa (2000) and Vijay Kumar (2002) have walked away with the top honours.
From 1998, the tournament was christened Wills Indian Open after the title sponsor. In 2005 Hero Honda Motors signed a three-year agreement with the event's promoter, the World Sport Group, to title sponsor the prestigious tournament and it has came to be known as Hero Honda Indian Open.
The Hero Honda Indian Open boasts of a purse of US $400,000 and in 2005 became the first golf tournament in India to be broadcast live on television when it was broadcast live on the ESPN STAR Sports network.
