GDI: It’s been a stupendous performance by you in the last few weeks. Where do you draw your inspiration from?
SS: Tiger Woods was always my biggest inspiration. I would keep watching his videos, stay awake till la
te in the night to watch him play on the PGA Tour. He has been a big inspiration. Among Indians, Jeev Milkha Singh is an inspirational figure among kids and even golfers younger and older than me. Also, what Anirban (Lahiri) has been doing in the past few years has been very inspiring. He had that meteoric rise to the PGA Tour and I saw all that happen in front of me. When I turned pro in 2013, Anirban was still playing on the Asian Tour. So many pros have been performing better every week and there have been so many Indian winners in Asia after that.
GDI: Many people don’t know about your amateur career. Please share some insights.
SS: I didn’t have a long amateur career, I only had a junior career before I turned pro. I just played 7-8 events as an amateur, though I was a junior golfer then. I won the IGU All-India Amateur in 2013 and turned pro right after that. As a junior, I was No. 1 in all the age categories beginning Cat. ‘C’ (under-10) of the IGU Order of Merit. I also won a few times and finished inside top-3 a number of times. Basically, I kept progressing steadily.
GDI: You are the highest-ranked Indian in the world at 71. By when do you see yourself breaking into the top-50 or higher?
SS: There are no expectations to be honest. I am taking every event as it comes. Getting into the top-50 is a very realistic target, it can happen in the next two events. I want to keep playing the way I am, if the form continues, you never know, I could have another win. Even a couple of top-5 finishes can get me closer to the top-50. I am playing the WGC and the British Open and hopefully I can get into more Majors this year. Anything is possible, I got to be playing the way I am currently.
GDI: In a country obsessed with education, how much encouragement have you got from your family (extended), and your parents in particular, to make a name in sports?
SS: I was good at studies as a kid and used to love playing sports like cricket and football. But once I got hooked to golf I used to spend a lot of time at the course after school, this was when I was 9-10 years old. Fortunately, everyone at home was pretty supportive including my mother (Neena Sharma) and father
(Colonel Mohan Sharma). Nobody from my extended family ever commented on me devoting so much time to the sport, especially because my father is the eldest amongst his siblings. There wasn’t any pressure on me to excel in studies only or score a certain percentage in the annual exams, say 90% etc. My parents only expected me to do well in academics. I always stood among the top-3 in every class. I was able to manage my studies despite travelling for tournaments as the schools I went to were very supportive. They were very flexible in terms of exams, attendance and assignments. In fact, at 7, when I started playing golf, my father was transferred to Bhopal where I got a lot of support from Bal Bhawan – the school where I studied in Classes 4, 5 & 6 – as the owner of the school, Omar Ali, was a very avid golfer. With the Army Golf Course nearby, he started a programme for kids to play golf. I used to visit the course every day after school. Golf sets were very expensive around that time but we got to use equipment and balls for free so that really helped. Those 3 years were really nice as I got to practice 3-5 or 6 pm each day. My first coach was Devinder Patel, he used to be a professional on the PGTI. Juggling studies and golf wasn’t easy, as classes got higher and higher it became tough to play. But I was always a good student and nobody had to sit with me to complete my homework. I used to complete most of it at school so that it didn’t affect my golf.
I started Open Schooling after Class 9. I was a smart student and used to prepare just a week prior to the exams. I’m currently studying Political Science (Honours) through Delhi University’s School of Correspondence. But I don’t think I will be studying any further after my graduation and even if I wanted to, it won’t be possible with the travelling schedules, etc. I will be really happy if I am able to complete my graduation this year with a score of tournaments on my plate.