By Rahul Banerji
A star-studded line-up will tee off in the third edition of the Saudi International golf tournament at the King Abdullah Economic City’s Royal Greens Golf & Country Club from Thursday.
Mixing it up in Saudi Arabia alongside world no.1 Dustin Johnson, defending champion Graeme McDowell and a host of others will be Shubhankar Sharma, who has shown flashes of form lately.
With a strength of field at its highest ever as entries include four of the world’s top-10, Sharma will have find the sort of touch he displayed in Dubai last week.
And for the 25-year-old, there can be no better challenge than to pick up from his run at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Shubhankar will play the opening two rounds of the $3.5 million event presented by Softbank Investent Advisers alongside Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas and Brandon Stone of South Africa.
Also in the fray are Dubai and Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship winners, Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton, besides Patrick Reed, who topped the field at the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open last week.
Age difference
Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Miguel Angel Jiminez lead the seniors’ brigade and at the other end of the age scale are Norway’s Viktor Hovland and Jazz Janewattanond of Thailand.
Situated on the Red Sea coast and spanning 6,900 yards the par-70 course will see inaugural edition winner Johnson going for a second win in three years.
In 2020, the American world leader finished second to McDowell by two shots.
Making their event debuts will be Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau, Kevin Na, and Hovland, tied third during his last European Tour start at the DP World Tour Championship, according to europeantour.com.
According to the website, Masters winner Johnson is 29-under from his two previous appearances at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club.
“I like the golf course,” he said on tournament eve. “It’s a fun course to play.
“Obviously I’ve had success here the last two years and I enjoy it. It’s been a great week.
“I think they do a great job hosting this event, and obviously this year, we’ve got a great field.”
‘Fun course’
Pushing Johnson in the Saudi International field will be fellow Americans Reed, five-time Major winner Mickelson and US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau.
Said Mickelson – third last year – ahead of the event, “I think that it’s really a fun golf course to play. I enjoyed it last year.
“Condition is a ten out of ten. I don’t think you can get it any more approximately manicured and set up for an event.
“It’s fun for me to see different parts of the world and I’m very flattered to be a part of this event.”
DeChambeau was sixth in 2019 and is quite pleased to try and replicate his recent feats on the PGA Tour on Saudi soil.
“It’s an honour to be here,” he said. “I’m always about growing the game, and I think this is a great opportunity to do it.
“The greens are in immaculate shape. I love them. They have tightened it up in certain areas from when I was here a couple years ago.
“I think hitting it long and far is an advantage here and being able to wedge it on to the green is huge. Kind of keep the same game plan as the US Open in a sense and go at it with that.”
In this array of achievement and talent, Shubhankar certainly has an opportunity to make his mark.
Also read: European Tour, PGA Tour announce landmark tie-up
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