By Rahul Banerji
India’s top-ranked golfer, Shubhankar Sharma, is set to debut at the ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf later this year as he became one of the first 28 players named by tournament officials on Friday.
To be played at The Metropolitan Golf Club from November 22 to 25, the 59th ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf will see 56 players vie for the $7 million prize money on offer, the PGA Tour said in a statement.
Sharma has in the current standings order Anirban Lahiri or Ganagjeet Bhullar to name as his first choice teammate for the World Cup of Golf.
Lahiri skipped the 2016 edition where Shiv Shankar Chawrasia and S. Chikkarangappa represented India.
Excited young man
“I’m really excited to qualify for my first World Cup of Golf at The Metropolitan,” Sharma said.
“Since the start of the year, I made this event as one of my goals s it has so much history, tradition and a wonderful list of past champions.
“To have the opportunity to represent India at a prestigious event like this is truly an honour and I will be give it everything to try and win the World Cup for my country.
“We don’t get too many opportunities to play for our nation, so it’s going to be fun with whoever I pick as my partner when we get down to Australia.
“I have heard the Metropolitan is a fantastic venue. I’m really looking forward to visiting the city and enjoying myself both on and off the golf course.”
The 22-year-old won the 2017 Joburg Open and 2018 Maybank Championship, and this week sits at no. 105 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).
He also had a pair of top-25 finishes on the PGA Tour this season, including a tie for ninth at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship in March where he led into the final round.
“It means a great deal to me,” Sharma said earlier this year at The Masters on being a role model. “I feel like if I can inspire kids back home in any way, it will definitely be a great thing for me, and I’ll be really happy if I can do that.
“I went back for the Indian Open, and I had so many kids coming up to me and so many parents coming up to me and congratulating me.
“It really makes me very happy that when I see more and more kids in the game, more and more people coming and following me.
“So, yeah, definitely it has a good sound to it, that I am representing the future of golf, and I think it helps that I’m really young and kids can look up to me and say that if he can do it, we can do it as well.”
Long history
India first competed in the World Cup in 1969, with Shadi Lal and Ryda Valjii on the team.
The country’s best finish in the tournament was in 2005, in Portugal, when Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa finished ninth.
Sharma, and the other committed player from the top 28 countries have until the evening of September 20 to choose a partner. The field of 56 players will be final as of that date.
The 72-hole stroke play team format will feature four-ball (best ball) play in the first and third rounds and foursomes (alternate shot) play in the second and final rounds.
The Melbourne World Cup of Golf is one of five tournaments co-sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours, joining the four events in the World Golf Championships series as tournaments which the Federation oversees.
The Federation is made up of all Tours from across the globe including the PGA Tour, European Tour, Japan Golf Tour, the ISPS Handa PGA of Australasia, the Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour (South Africa).