Royal Troon, Scotland, 21-07-2024

Birthday boy Shubhankar Sharma claims tied 19th place for second straight top-20 at The Open

Source: PTI

India’s Olympic-bound golfer Shubhankar Sharma (76-72-67-72) gave himself a good send-off for the Paris Olympic Games on his 28th birthday as he carded a one-over 72 in the final round to record a creditable tied 19th finish at Royal Troon in the 152nd Open on Sunday.

With the first two rounds of 76-72, Sharma made the cut on the line after surviving a tense three-hour wait.

The Indian followed that up with a superb four-under 67 on the third day to rise to tied 15th and on the final day, despite some missed putts and a three-putt, he fought his way to a 72 to finish inside the top 20 in demanding conditions.

Meanwhile, American Xander Schauffele, the reigning PGA Champion, grabbed a three-shot lead with three holes and finished the job with a two-shot win over Engalnd's Justin Rose (67), who finished as runner-up after coming into the event as a qualifier.

The conditions were tough but Sharma showed great grit and hung in for a final round of one-over 72 to finish three-over 287 for the week and inside the top-20 for the second straight year.

Sharma had two birdies and dropped three bogeys. One of the bogeys was on the ninth, where he missed a par putt inside eight feet.

After a tied eighth result last year, a tied 19th finish may seem a bit disappointing, but he took the positives from the week, as he came back from the cutline to inside the Top-20.

"I am proud of the fightback, and it will hold me in good stead for my first Olympic Games next month in Paris," said Sharma.

"There will be some celebrations with my family, the entire team and some friends here, but a lot of the season is still left, and I have some big events leading to the DP World finale." Sharma was overall pleased with his show.

"It was a good week. Second and third days I played brilliantly, so no complaints. Today could have been slightly better. Overall I played really well. I'm quite proud of myself," he said.

"It's probably the toughest Open that I've played out of the four that I've played. Hung in there, made some great putts. Quite happy overall.

"I've always been very fond of the Open ever since I was a kid. Yeah, just brings the best out of me, and I kind of bookmark it at the start of the year that this is a tournament I want to play and I want to play well in. Yeah, it was quite special." Talking about the conditions of the final day, Sharma said, "Yes, it was still demanding. Yesterday was probably the easiest day, but the first two days were very tough. Today also when we started it was quite windy so not very easy.

"Towards the end there were birdie chances. You still had to hit good shots. Pin positions were tough. It was gettable.

"I was hoping I'd get off to a slightly better start, one of those putts falling in the first few holes, and that three-putt on 7 not happening. Probably could have been slightly better. But it's fine. I still played well. Lots of positives."

Shubhankar thus moved up 28 spots to 173rd place in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) and gained 10 spots to move into 50th place in the DP World Tour's Race to Dubai Ranking.