Seventeen-year old Shubhankar Sharma of Gurgaon pulled the rug from under the feet of his experienced rivals to claim the inaugural PGTI Cochin Masters at the CIAL Golf and Country Club on Saturday.
The champion totalled nine-under 135 for the tournament to push overnight leaders Delhi’s Rashid Khan and Lucknow’s Sanjay Kumar to joint second at seven-under 137. While winning his maiden title, after posting a four-under 32 in the final round, Sharma became the youngest winner on the PGTI at the age of 17 years and ninth months, erasing Chikkarangappa’s feat of 20 years and two months.
The youngster bagged the winner’s purse of `8,08,250 to climb from 23rd place to fourth on the Rolex Rankings. He earned 1035 points that also catapulted him from ninth to first on the PGTI Super Series points table. Top seed Anirban Lahiri, the winner of the season’s first Super Series event in Ahmedabad, is second. He finished tied 12th at two-under-142.
Coming into the final round, Sharma (33-37-33-32) was two shots off the lead at tied second but proceeded to post the joint best score of the day to upstage a strong field.