CHENNAI: FOR a brief while last week, Shubhankar Sharma raised expectations of two Indians possessing a PGA card. After Anirban Lahiri came through in his test, a fine first-round 66 from Sharma in the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship had given him hope of having a PGA card.
Struggling for form, he finally found his radar to be tied third. He kind of surprised himself. “A low round after a long time !!!,” he had posted on Twitter.
Alas, that round proved to be the exception. It all went downhill quickly. Needing to finish sixth or higher to join Lahiri on the sport’s greatest stage, his tee shots and putts resembled that of a man low on confidence. The end result — T46 — meant he would once again have to rely on invitations to play on the PGA Tour.
But the 23-year-old doesn’t want to spend his time ruing the missed chance for two reasons. He calls it a learning experience, all part of the process. “It’s totally fine. It was a good experience to play on the PGA Tour.”
Sharma prefers to see the positives — “I am happy that I never missed a cut while playing on the PGA this year (seven from seven)” — and says that a few minor adjustments should restore his confidence. “I had a bit of a mental lapse after the first round last week. A few adjustments to my game is what I need; more of a mental thing.”
That first-round 66 has also given him a much-needed balm after a couple of months of underwhelming card numbers. For starters, it was his best round of competition golf since July. “That’s the objective right now, have more rounds like that. I know I have that in my locker. Now the challenge is to develop that consistency.”
The other reason why Sharma isn’t too disheartened is because he still has a European tour card. “It’s not a bad tour to play in, you know. I have got quite a few tournaments lined up there. Next up, I have Amsterdam (KLM Open from September 12) as well as the PGA Championship (from September 19)... Those two tournaments give me the opportunity to see whether I can build on the first round from last week.”
The importance of improving his ranking — World No 259 — isn’t lost on the Arjuna Award winner. “The main objective between now and the end of the season (European tour) is to find some rhythm and steadily improve my rank... It controls everything, including whether I get invitations from PGA events, Olympic spot and so on.
“The goal for this year and next is to improve my rank, to be honest. I will mostly be playing on the European tour. Frankly speaking, I really haven’t thought much about the Olympics for now. First, the onus is on doing well at Amsterdam. The rest will follow.”
Shubhankar since
14 October 2018
7 PGA events, never missed a cut (best finish T10)
0 Titles | 1 Major (Open)
8 Missed cuts overall
16 European tour events
(best finish T6)