Shubhankar Sharma is in a great place at the moment, says Anirban Lahiri
Anirban Lahiri has believed that despite not winning the Indian Open, Shubhankar Sharma is in great form at the moment. Lahiri, who was disappointed with his own performance in the Indian Open, also claimed that he needs to find some confidence before entering future tournaments.
In the last one year, Shubhankar has shown exceptional form winning 2 Asian Tour, 2 European Tour titles and a Sunshine Tour title. The young golfer finished 9th at the Mexico World Gold Championships after leading the scoreboard for the second and third round which resulted in an invitation to the Master’s tournament scheduled to take place later this year. In a short span, he jumped from 462nd place to 66th.
Ahead of the start of the Indian Open, all eyes were on Shubhankar who tried to deliver a good performance but failed to meet the expectations as he missed the chance to win the title. Shubhankar was the joint leader, along with eventual winner Matt Wallace, heading into the final round but struggled on the final day and ended up in ninth place. Lahiri didn’t bother with the loss as he claimed that the 21-year-old is on the right track.
“Shubhankar Sharma did not have a good day and even though he made as many as six birdies in his round, it also had three double bogeys. You can recover from one in a tightly bunched leaderboard, but three is a bit too much,” Lahiri wrote in a column for TOI.
“I am not worried at all about Shubhankar. He is in a great space at the moment and setbacks like the two Sundays should not upset him as long as he does all the hard work leading up to that day and is in contention.”
Lahiri, who won the Indian Open in 2015, was also part of the tournament and was hoping to end his three-year title drought. He wanted to reclaim the tournament crown so that he can earn a place in the WGC Matchplay Championship. But he failed to do so as he finished tied 34th behind other Indian players Shubhankar and Jyoti Randhawa and KN Kaul who were tied 32nd.
“I got off to a bad start at the start of the Hero Indian Open week and I must admit I tried very hard on all four days to pull it back. Unfortunately, it just did not happen. Personally, I am disappointed. Not just because it is the Indian Open and I was playing in front of my home crowd. I have a good record in the tournament and I am very proud of it. Unfortunately, I got caught by a tough golf course with my game not in the best possible shape to wage a battle against it,” he wrote.
Lahiri, ranked 80th, is hoping that he will get a chance in the Tour Championship but also admitted that for his future assignments he needs confidence and for that he needs to work hard.
“I need to find some confidence. Whether I do that at the range, when my coach Vijay (Divecha) comes to spend some time with me in the US after the Bay Hill Invitational, or whether I find it while playing
