Shubhankar Sharma inches closer to Asian Tour Order of Merit title
after tied sixth fi nish in Hong Kong
I
ndia’s Shubhankar Sharma inched closer to the Asian Tour Order
of Merit title after posting a tied sixth ¿ nish, his fourth top-10
of the season, at the Honma Hong Kong Open. Shubhankar, a
winner at the Maybank Championship earlier this season, extended
his lead in the Asian Tour money list as a result of his tied sixth ¿ nish
in Hong Kong.
The 22-year-old Sharma, recently crowned European Tour Rookie of
the Year, now enjoys a lead of more than US$194,000 over his closest
competitor Sanghyun Park of Korea with only three more weeks and
four more events remaining in the season.
Shubhankar, the frontrunner in the race for being Asia No. 1 in 2018,
has total season’s earnings of US$755,994 while second-placed Park
has earnings of US$561,898. South African Justin Harding lies third
at US$424,177.
Sharma will not be playing the Mauritius Open and South African
Open in order to get some rest. He returns to action on the Asian Tour
during the season-ending Indonesian Masters which will be played
from December 13 to 16.
Despite Shubhankar missing two key events, it will be a tough task
for the others to dislodge him from the top of the rankings considering
the huge lead he enjoys at the moment.
Shubhankar is now in line to emulate Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun
Shubhankar Sharma
Atwal (2003), Jeev Milkha Singh (2006 and 2008) and Anirban
Lahiri (2015), who have lifted the Asian Tour Order of Merit crown
before him.
Interestingly, India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar is currently ranked fourth in
Asia and is in line to improve on his previous best ¿ fth place ¿ nishes
achieved in 2012 and 2013.
Team India fi nishes tied 10th at World Cup of Golf
Anirban Lahiri
Gaganjeet Bhullar
he Indian team of Anirban Lahiri and Gaganjeet Bhullar
claimed tied 10th place at the ISPS Handa Melbourne World
Cup of Golf played in Melbourne, Australia from November
22 to 25. T up with a total of 12-under-276.
The duo of Lahiri and Bhullar, who were tied third and just two off
the lead at the halfway stage, shot scores of 64, 72, 70 and 70, to end The Belgian team comprising of Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry
won the event with a total score of 23-under-265.
Team India thus fell just short of their all-time best ¿ nish of ninth
place which was achieved by the duo of Arjun Atwal and Jyoti
Randhawa in Portugal in 2005.
GolfPlus
DECEMBER
2018
73