Hats off to Shubhankar’s poise
LEADERBOARD
209: Matt Wallace (69, 70, 70); Shubhankar Sharma (73, 64, 72)
210: Stephen Gallacher (72, 71, 67)
211: Matthias Schwab (71, 72, 68); Andrew Johnston (72, 66, 73); Emiliano Grillo (65, 68, 78) 212: Sihwan Kim (70, 70, 72); Pablo Larrazabal (67, 71, 74) What an exciting day’s golf it was at the Hero Indian Open. Of course, personally, there was a lot of disappointment as I missed the cut, but I am now enjoying the action. It’s a bunched up leaderboard and anything can happen. That’s what the spectators want. Only 18 players are in red numbers and eight players are within three shots of the lead.
From the home crowd’s point of view, Shubhankar Sharma is right up there in shared lead. So, he has at least a part of the lead for the second week running in two different parts of the world. After being in sole lead at WGC-Mexico last week, he is Tied-first with Matt Wallace in the Hero Indian Open. Both Shubhankar and Wallace are at 7-under.
As for the runaway leader on the first two days, Emiliano Grillo must have realised how difficult it is to keep the lead going. It was always going to be a difficult day and he did give away a lot of shots, with his 6-over 78. Yet he is only two behind the leaders.
In between them is Stephen Gallacher, a pedigreed player, whose successes include two great wins in the Dubai Desert Classic in 2013 and 2014. Gallacher had an incredible five-under 67, the best card of the day during which less than 10 players were in red numbers.
Grillo, who had 65-68 on the first two days finally ran into trouble on the third day at the DLF Golf and Country Club and came back with a six-over 78. From 11-under, he dropped to 5-under and Tied-fourth. Despite a very rough day, when he had two double bogeys and a bogey in a three-hole stretch from 13th to the 15th, he is only two off the lead. He could well strike back on Sunday. At the end of it, Shubhankar made another upward move and now has a shared lead at seven-under despite an even par 72. Shubhankar is now sevenunder and leads alongside Matt Wallace (70).
Hats off to Shubhankar for keeping his poise and not allowing pressure to get to him. There were times he seemed to be up against clutch putts and he handled them well. It does mark him out as the player to beat and as a player to watch in coming months. The crucial stretch for him was right in the middle of the round, when he holed three birdies in a span of four holes from seventh to 10th. On a day when the course was tough with tee boxes pushed back and some pins in difficult positions, it was important to make good the chances and he did just that.
Mathias Schwab (68) also made a big move to Tied-fourth and Aaron Rai was at one stage fiveunder before he dropped a late double on the 16th.