Anirban, Shubhankar resume hunt for PGA Tour status

By Rahul Banerji

One down, two to go is where those gunning for full PGA Tour status find themselves on the eve of the Albertsons Boise Open, the second of three Korn Ferry Tour finals events that tees off on Thursday.

The top 25 finishers in this race, apart from those already qualified and still in the hunt for Order of Merit honours gain PGA Tour cards for the 2020 season and from India, Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma are in the mix.

Follow the action here at Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco

Lahiri’s tied seventh finish and 165 points gained at the opening tournament, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus last week, sees him well placed to seal the PGA Tour card as a 35^th place or better in this second leg of three finals will see him though.

Well placed

He is tied for seventh place in the overall rankings and sixth in the list of non-exempt players, exactly the same as fellow former PGA Tour member Justin Harding of South Africa and Tom Hoge of the US.

For Sharma, the picture is a little more complicated. He missed the cut at Columbus and is well down in the standings in tied 76^th place overall and tied 59^th in the non-exempt players standings with zero points.

This suggests he will have to do extremely well both in Idaho and in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship next week in Indiana to climb into the top 25 who all get full PGA Tour status thereafter.

More for points than prize money

Each of the three finals events offers a million dollars in prize money, with the winner earning $180,000.

At Boise, Lahiri is placed in a strong group, alongside rookie pro and 2018 US amateur champion, Norway’s Viktor Hovland, and Cameron Percy of Australia, who both have 130 points after the Columbus event.

Shubhankar will open alongside Americans David Lipsky and Bill Kennerly, who like the Indian, are on no points in the qualifying table.

The Albertson Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco will be played at the 6,726-yard, par 71 Hillcrest Country Club; which has hosted the event since 1990, and holds a spot in the Finals rotation for a fourth consecutive year, the Korn Ferry Tour website says.

Hillcrest is known as perhaps the most scoreable track in the Finals rotation, with a winning score of 23-under (Michael Thompson) in 2016, and nine winning scores of 20 under or lower in the last 13 years.

Martin Piller set the course record in 2013 with a 28-under 256 total, before the event gained Finals inclusion.

Flying start for Dhruv Sheoran

Meanwhile, in Karnal, Delhi-based Dhruv Sheoran shot a 6-under-56, his first ever bogey-free round in a professional tournament, for the first round lead at the Tata Steel PGTI Feeder Tour event at the Madhuban Meadows on Wednesday.

While the 24-year-old Sheoran, the 2017 PGTI Qualifying School champion, raced into the early lead, 22-year-old rookie Yuvraj Singh Sandhu of Chandigarh was second on 5-under-57.

After heavy rain leading into the event, the par-4 14^th and 15^th holes were rendered unplayable and all three rounds will feature 16 holes each with par for the course being 62.

Sheoran, a two-time winner on the Feeder Tour last year, shot his best round of the season to take honours on Wednesday. He started with a tap-in birdie and another before making the turn, both thanks to some fine chipping.

Good going

On the front-nine, Sheoran picked up four more birdies to top the leaderboard. They included three quality up and downs and a near perfect tee shot on a par-3 that landed a foot from the flag.

Sheoran, currently second in the Feeder Tour Order of Merit, said, “It’s great to post my first ever error-free round in a tournament.

“The feel-good factor from this round should help me carry forward the form into the next two rounds. Everything just seemed to fall in place today. I hit some brilliant drives, had some good chips and putted consistently.”

While Sandhu mixed six birdies with a bogey to be placed second, Gurgaon’s Kushal Singh was third at 4-under-58.

Karnal golfers, professional Mani Ram and amateur Ritesh Kumar, were both joint 13^th on level par 62s.

Feeder Tour Order of Merit leader Anil Bajrang Mane of Mumbai carded a 1-over-63 to be tied 20^th.

Also read: T7 finish at Columbus gives Lahiri early shot at PGA Tour card