By Rahul Banerji
Two top-10 finishes in 12 starts on the US PGA Tour is no small achievement, but then Shubhankar Sharma does not set his sights low.
The 22-year-old has already been a professional golfer for over one-fifth of his life and is making a name for playing it cool under pressure.
Two miss-outs from positions of strength though will have left a mark on the Gurgaon golfer. In February, he was in the lead at the WGC Mexico Championship and finished in a tie for ninth.
On Sunday at Kuala Lumpur, Shubhankar slipped from the top of the CIMB Classic leaderboard to joint tenth, something that will have given him pause to reflect. With a 19-under four day aggregate.
Speaking to the media later, Shubhankar said while he was naturally disappointed, he was quite pleased to have two top-10s on the PGA Tour in his career summary.
It was an interesting summary in his own words of the week gone by, and how he sees his immediate future.
Excerpts from his post-event interview, courtesy the PGA Tour media cell:
Can you reflect on the day?
Shubhankar Sharma: Disappointing, not really happy with the way I finished. But again, as always, a great experience for me going forward and I think my game is in a good state for the next two weeks.
I have two more PGA Tour tournaments, so I’m pretty happy with how it ended up.
What held you back today?
SS: My start was not as good, but I came back really strong. I made four birdies in a row and I was really happy with the way I was playing and I knew I had a chance.
We had to wait, there was some wait on the 11th hole and I was in between clubs so I was trying to hit a soft rescue and that was probably one of the worst swings of the day and that ended up in the water.
After that it was just a trend of hitting bad shots. The next hole after that I hit it in the bunker, I had a relatively easy shot and I duffed it and couldn’t make up and down.
Even on the next hole I was in the fairway, hit a good second shot to the left.
That 11th hole I think killed the momentum for me. A par there would have gone a long way and I probably could have made more birdies after that.
Also, coming in you gave yourself several birdie chances still and the putts also looked really good, but just slipped past.
SS: The worst putt of the day was the 16th, that didn’t deserve to go in, that was a bad putt. But other than that, all were good putts till the end.
Two lip‑outs as well?
SS: 16 was a bad stroke. Like I said, I should have made that. That was only four feet, but I should have made that. But again, it’s all right. 19 under is not a bad week.
A great experience to play at this level with this kind of a field. I mean, to play and still finish in the top‑10?
SS: Great experience. Very, very good to have two top‑10s on the PGA Tour, so that’s a good way of looking at it.
Also, it pushes me to keep playing well. I feel like I have it in me to win out there on the PGA Tour and I’ve given myself two opportunities. Game is in a decent place now.
The next two weeks are also big events, and anything is possible. So I’ll just try and keep at it and let’s see what the next two weeks brings.
Any pressure being there at the top?
SS: I was fine, there was no pressure. I was really calm and relaxed on the course.
Just that 11th hole, I kept making bad swings after that. Those bad swings killed me and those three bogeys shouldn’t have come at that time.
Can I just get your thoughts on the Order of Merit results? This gets you a lot of money on the Order of Merit.
SS: I have no idea how much will be – I know 50 percent will be counted, I think, but I don’t know how much I made. That probably will extend ‑‑ was I the best station this week?
Yep.
SS: So probably it will extend my lead so I’m happy about that. But again, a top‑5 or a top 3 would have given me a huge lead.
It will be a decent lead, but I’m pretty happy, not really going to think about that, let’s see what happens in the end.
And this top‑10 gives you some rankings on the Presidents Cup.
SS: I haven’t really thought about it until you told me right now, but I really want to make it to that team.
This position will help me in that and the next two weeks are also big, so I’ll try and play well the next two weeks as well and see what happens.