By Rahul Banerji
Shubhankar Sharma breathed a sigh of relief after becoming the first Indian to win the tour’s Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award.
Sharma, 22, achieved the feat with a tied 41st finish in Dubai on Sunday and also finished a creditable 28th in the Race to Dubai with two wins and three other top-10s.
His total points for the season stood at an impressive 1,431,741.
Shubhankar said, “You can only do it once in your career and I’m very happy with the season. I’m very happy to be on the Tour here.
“A lot of other great players before have won this award, I’m really happy that I was lucky enough to win it this year. I played well and won twice and had a few top tens, so very happy.
“To win twice and just to learn so much on this Tour with the best players in the world, I would say I had a great year.”
Shubhankar is also the current Asian Tour Order of Merit leader.
Hot start
He opened the season with a tied tenth at the UBS Hong Kong Open before a maiden international victory at the European Tour’s Joburg Open. It was just his tenth start on the continental tour.
Sharma followed that up with his second title at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia where he carded a phenomenal final round of 62.
The Chandigarh-based golfer joins previous Rookies of the Year, Spaniard Jon Rahm and Korean Jeung hun Wang, as one of only three players in the last 20 years to win twice in their first 20 events.
Sharma then made a memorable World Golf Championships debut in Mexico where he finished tied ninth after having led the field at the end of 54 holes.
That performance earned him a special invitational to the Masters.
Career-best
The very next week, Shubhankar posted a tied seventh at the Hero Indian Open to reach a career-high 64th in the world rankings and also take the lead in the Race to Dubai.
Sharma ended up playing all four Majors and all four WGC events in the year.
He entered the DP World Tour Championship at 26th in the rankings but was not guaranteed the rookie prize, with Lucas Herbert and Sam Horsfield still in with a chance to overtake him.
After a final round in Dubai, Sharma slipped 32 places to tied 41st at two-under-286 but that was enough for him to seal the rookie prize.
Sharma joins the likes of Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, José María Olazábal, Colin Montgomerie, Thomas Bjørn, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Brooks Koepka and last year’s winner Jon Rahm in the rookie winners’ list.
Finishing inside the top-30 on the Race to Dubai, has also guaranteed Shubhankar a spot at The Open at Royal Portrush next year.
Sharma will now look to capitalise on his lead in the Asian Tour Order of Merit in the final stretch of the season.
If he does it, Sharma will emulate Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun Atwal (2003), Jeev Milkha Singh (2006 and 2008) and Anirban Lahiri (2015), as Asian champion.
Also read: Shubhankar Sharma leads race for European Rookie of the Year
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