Shubhankar sets sights on solid CIMB Classic performance

By Rahul Banerji

India’s top-ranked golfer Shubhankar Sharma is no stranger to Malaysian courses. In February this year he overturned a four-shot final day deficit to win the Maybank Championship with a round of 10 under par 62.

Now back for the CIMB Classic, the first of a three-event swing the US PGA Tour takes through Asia, Sharma is looking forward to a strong performance over the next four days.

Shubhankar Sharma will tee off along with fellow-Asians Byeonghun An and Kiradech Aphibarnrat in the first two rounds.

Excerpts from his pre-tournament media interaction:

On his first CIMB Classic

I’ve seen this event on TV for so many years. Anirban won the Malaysian Open here a few years ago so I’ve seen this golf course a lot on TV and today was my first look at it.

Really happy that I’m part of this event and looking forward to it.

On sealing his spot for the event

I was really happy.  I think I pretty much sealed it in February when I won in Malaysia, but there were so many things happening for me at that time.

I got into the Masters and all the majors and WGC, so it was so much to take in. But obviously I knew that I was going to get into the CIMB and was very happy about it.

It’s a good thing there’s no cut this week, so we can all enjoy ourselves and do our best.

On the TPC Kuala Lumpur.course

The course is fantastic. Obviously you can’t really find similar courses anywhere in the world even in the US.

But this is definitely right up there, especially with the way the conditions are, the way the greens are playing. I played nine holes with Scott Stallings in the morning and he was telling me that he’s been here for the past five years and the course is looking really good.

This is my first time here so I don’t really know what it looked like before, but the greens are firm and fast and hard and even the fairways are running really well, so the course is great.

On where his game is now

I’ve never really played so much in a year. I’ve just been playing constantly.

I had to go so much to America this year, went twice there, and then playing in Europe.

Obviously we all know golf is a game that you can’t really have your best every week. What I feel like in my short career is that it’s only when you are not playing well that you learn more about yourself.

You have things that you would not really look at when you’re playing well, but when you’re playing bad, you tend to look at the finer things. I think I’ve done that in the past month.

On the next three weeks

No doubt very, very important. All three are big events.  You have some of the best players in the world playing.

Next week in Korea and China, all these events are going to be really big. They’re all PGA Tour events and I knew this was going to happen at the start of the year.

Even if I don’t make my card, I will have these three at the start of the season. If I just play well, have consistent finishes, I feel like I’ll get off to a very good start and obviously help my world ranking.

Then next year again it will be the same scenario, trying to get into the WGCs and the majors. I feel like this start will really help me next year securing my card.

On four Indians in a PGA Tour event

I think it’s incredible that four Indians are playing.  It just shows that we have so much depth now in golf. 

Obviously it shows that we have been producing players in the past and we are producing more and more players who will compete on the world stage.

It’s great that Anirban also got in yesterday. And the good thing about all of us is we are all really good friends and very close, so it’s always nice to see all of them back.

Four Indians in an event I think is great. It’s only like a 70‑man field, I think, or whatever it is, but it’s a limited field event and four Indians playing I think it’s absolutely great.

On lessons from playing the PGA Tour

Well, there were so many things that I learnt, but one good thing that I can say is that we try and ‑‑ I know in Asia and back home we just complicate things too much.

We feel like if you want to play on the PGA Tour, you’ve got to hit it very long, you’ve got to putt and make everything and you have to go low and all.

That is all right if you want to raise your level, but at the end of the day you’re just playing golf.

Wherever you are, you’re just playing against the course. No one’s really pushing you down, and that was my biggest lesson.

All the tournaments that I played I didn’t feel like I was playing my best and I knew that if I played my best, I would have had a chance in every single one of them.

So definitely that gave me a lot of confidence that my best is good enough to win on the PGA Tour as well.

Up next: Anirban Lahiri pre-tournament interview.