Shubhankar Sharma is getting ready to play his sixth career major at The Open
Last week we wrote in India Golf Weekly about the fewer number of Indians who have been able to qualify for the majors in the last 4-5 years compared to the days of Jeev, Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal who regularly ensured the Indian flag was flown at golf’s biggest events.
Related: Indian golf’s worrying major drought
Now we learn that 26-year-old Shubhankar Sharma, the only Indian competing for the past two years regularly in Europe has earned an entry into the 151st Open Championship scheduled from July 20-23 at Royal Liverpool Golf Course in UK based on his 29th place finish in the DP World ( European) Tour final Rankings in 2022. The top 30 players in the rankings automatically earn invitations for the following years’ Open championship.
At the same time, Anirban Lahiri may get into the years’ 2nd major – the USPGA Championship in May since he is currently 91st in the World Rankings and may just stay inside the top 100 when the field is announced for the PGA, where he finished 5th in 2015, which remains the best ever finish by an Indian at a major.
In 2018, Sharma became the first Indian to play all four men’s golf majors in one season, but he made the cut only at the Open Championship, where he finished tied for 51st both in 2018 and 2019.
It’s been a struggle in recent years for Indian players to qualify for Major tournaments. This will be only the fourth major with an Indian in the field at one of the majors since Sharma played in all four of them in 2018. 2022 saw no Indians play at any of the majors.
Sharma will need to find his best form soon. So far in 2023, he has made only two cuts in 7 starts which included a 7th place finish at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January 2023, the same event where he finished 2nd in 2022.
Credits:-
Photo – The Open