Shubhankar goes down fighting to Sergio Garcia
Johnson, McIlroy upset in openers
Shubhankar Sharma pushed the reigning Masters champion Sergio Garcia to the fullest before losing by a hole in his first match at the WGCDell Technologies MatchPlay Championship.
Garcia almost joined the ranks with defending champion Dustin Johnson and Rory McIllroy, who lost their opening matches but managed to scrape through on the 18th hole.
Austrian Bernd Wiesberger shocked Johnson 3&1 while Peter Uihlein defeated McIlroy 2&1.
Other big names like Jordan Spieth (beat Charl Schwartzel), Justin Thomas (beat Luke List), Jason Day (beat James Hahn) and Ian Poulter (beat Tommy Fleetwood) won their opening matches.
Shubhankar, 21, gave the reigning Masters champion a great fight and in fact led at various stages before being level at the 18th tee.
And then Garcia pulled head to win the last hole and the match in his first appearance since becoming a father last month.
Sharma was well received by the fans, many of them Indian, and he said, “I played very well and I am very proud of the way I played. Both Sergio and myself made a lot of mistakes out there but then I holed a great birdie putt there on 16 from 15-feet to match Sergio’s birdie and then a good putt for par on 17 (six feet) to save par and send the match down the last.
“It could have gone anyway at the last and I have to congratulate Sergio as he played a fantastic up-and-down for par from the bunker. I just feel like I made a few too play lavished praise on the Indian youngster, saying:”It was a good match and I enjoyed playing alongside Shubhankar as he is a very good player, and certainly has some talent,” he said.
“He didn’t surprise me, and