Shubhankar Sharma
Shubhankar Sharma, who has been in cracking form lately, recorded his season’s best finish of 3rd in Europe by shooting 67-64-70-66 (17-under 267) at the US$ 1.8mn Acciona Open de Espana in Spain.
The tournament saw 25 year old Shubhankar card a phenomenal 20 birdies and 2 eagles over 4 days, including a birdie-eagle finish for a 64 on Day 2.
Sharma started the final round 5 shots back, with hopes of making a charge but a double-bogey on the third derailed his chances. However he bounced back strongly making eight more birdies including a crucial one on 18 which jumped him into the tie for 3rd place and finished only two strokes behind the eventual winner, Rafael Cabrero Bello.
The tied-3rd finish in a strong field which included World No 1 Jon Rahm, also happens to be the 25 year old Shubhankar’s best finish on tour since his win at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia in February 2018.
Shubhankar’s solid cheque of US$ 83,000 (₹ 62 lacs), took his season earnings to US$ 514,000 (₹3.86 crores) moving him to 55th on the Race to Dubai European Tour Rankings. This puts him on track to qualify for the lucrative tour finale – the US$ 9mn DP World Tour Championship in Dubai this November which is reserved for the top 60 ranked players.
The only other Indian in the field, Gaganjeet Bhullar, who returned after an almost two month break as his wife Naureen gave birth to their first child in Chandigarh a few weeks ago, missed the cut by two in Madrid.
The two will next play the US$ 3.5mn Andalucia Masters in Spain from Oct. 14-17.
Credits:-
Photo – The Bridge