Shubhankar ends T-6, has Asian Order of Merit in sight
HONGKONG: India’s Shubhankar Sharma on Sunday followed up his European Tour Rookie of the Year award season with a top-10 finish at the HONMA Hong Kong Open, strengthening his chances of winning the Asian Tour Order of Merit.
At the Hong Kong Golf Club course, the 22-year-old Sharma shot a three-under par 67 on the final day to improve to tied sixth place at nine-under par 271.
England’s Aaron Rai, who is of Indian origin, won his first tournament on the European Tour after battling compatriot Matthew Fitzpatrick down the final stretch. The 23-year-old closed with a one-under par 69 to finish on 17-under par 263, one shot better than Fitzpatrick (64).
Sharma finished alongside 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia and consolidated his position on top of the Asian Tour’s Habitat for Humanity Standing.
Only three players now have a chance to catch up the Indian - Korean Sanghyun Park, South African Justin Harding and American John Catlin - but they will have to win at least two of the three remaining events on the schedule.
INDIA FINISH IN TOP-10
MELBOURNE: India recorded their second top-10 finish in the ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf after Anirban Lahiri and Gaganjeet Bhullar produced a second successive two-under 70 in the final round here on Sun- day.
Lahiri and Bhullar finished on 12-under par 276 to share the 10th spot after Sunday’s foursomes round, while Belgium won the tournament for the first time with a total of 23-under 265.
Belgium’s Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry added a fourunder par 68 in the final round to win by three shots at the Metropolitan Golf Club here.
Hosts Australia produced a storming finish of seven-under par 65 to climb to tied second place alongside Mexico (66).
“It’s been a bad weekend. I think we played really well Thursday, Friday, a lot of positives there,” said Lahiri , who will now play in Indonesia.
I’m definitely very happy with this top10 finish. It got really tough out there today with the rain, and in the end I was just pleased to finish off well.
SHUBHANKAR SHARMA