Shubhankar breaks it up to rediscover his old touch
In danger of losing his European Tour card, Sharma has set small targets each round to turn things around
DUBAI: As Shubhankar Sharma boarded Virgin’s Saturday evening service to London at the end of his Scottish Open campaign in July, his mind was in a churn.
It just seemed inexplicable that someone who was right up there in terms of number of birdies made in the 2021 season of the European Tour was heading home earlier after yet another missed cut – his eighth in 16 starts.
At No128 in the Race to Dubai Rankings (the Order of Merit for the European Tour), the 25-yearold two-time champion was on the verge of losing his playing privilege on the tour (his threeyear exemption for winning the Maybank Championship runs out this season), and his official world golf ranking had fallen from an all-time high of 64 to 449.
Right from the opening round he played in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on January 21, it had been a perplexing year. He started on the 10th tee with back-to-back birdies, and then finished with double bogeys on the seventh and ninth holes. What promised to be a spectacular opening round had turned into a disappointing 76.
The trend of solid, birdie-filled rounds turning ugly with a couple of nightmarish holes continued almost seven months and into the Scottish Open. In that period, he made 191 birdies in 47 rounds for a very healthy average of 4.06.
Those numbers should have seen him contending for titles on Sunday and not heading to the nearest station or airport on Saturdays.
It definitely did not help that Sharma was living out of a suitcase and inside the COVID-19 bubble for almost four continuous months. With India struggling with the deadly second wave and the severe travel restrictions, it would have been pointless for him to go back to Chandigarh and enjoy some home comfort even when he had his weeks off.
But something happened on the way back to London, and the one week forced break as he had failed to qualify for the Open Championship at Royal St George’s.
“I was quite happy with the way I was playing, but I just wasn’t getting the scores that I thought I deserved. So, after the Scottish, I sat down with Lyle (Phillips, his caddie since June), and we decided to change a few things,” said Sharma over the phone.
“I felt I had some issues with my neck and shoulders. It didn’t feel like an injury – I just felt tired and stiff. So, I told myself that I wanted to feel fresh for every round and for the whole round. I started spending more time at the gym, and I started specific exercises to release, stretch and activate my shoulder area. That helped a lot.”
They also took another innovative—and as it turned out, critical—decision: to play mini games inside the game.
“We thought that instead of having long-term plans, let’s have very short-term plans. We made it all fun and games. For example, we’d start a round and say we don’t want to make any bogies in the first four holes. If we achieved that, we’d have a mini celebration and then move to the next game. It could be that I’d hit the next four holes in regulation, or I will birdie at least one of the two par-5s coming up,” said Sharma.
The immediate result was that Sharma stayed focused on each hole through the round, his mind off his 18-hole scores or his position in the tournament.
“I did not want to lose my little games, and the round just took care of itself,” he said.
It helped in July at the Cazoo Open in Wales for example, when, after two solid rounds, his game abandoned him on Saturday with a six-over par 77.
“I did a great job of disassociating myself from the round that day. I went to the range and hit some balls, and I was very calm despite that horrible round,” Sharma said. “In the final round, I came out and shot an eight-under par 63, my lowest score in a long, long time. That round gave me so much confidence and I have managed to carry that momentum from there on.”
The turnaround has been impressive. Sharma has made all eight cuts in his last eight starts, including two top-10s, two top20s and two top-30s. From 449, his world ranking has improved to No 293, and on the European Tour, he is now guaranteed a card for 2022, having jumped to No 78 from 128.
Sharma has continued to make birdies by the dozen, adding another 126 in his last 32 rounds. At an average of 3.937, it is lower than what he was getting before the Wales Open, but he has also, remarkably, made 10 eagles in that period. That gives him a better rate of making eagles than 2021 PGA Tour leader Bryson DeChambeau. The American star—who is at least 35-40 yards longer than Sharma off the tee (in fact, the longest driver in the world)—made 19 in 83 rounds, thus making one eagle every 75.8 holes. Comparatively, Sharma is making an eagle every 57.6 holes since Scotland.
The only thing missing right now is a win. His last one was on February 2018 (Maybank Championship). But Sharma is biding his time with patience and confidence.
“I am so much better as a player now. My short game is better, my shot-shaping ability is better, my ball flight is better. I am a better player in the wind and I have the experience of playing in varied conditions,” he said.
“But what I am most happy about is my patience. I know I have the ability to win, but I am not chasing wins. I am chasing routines and consistency. I am very close to a win and if I win once, it will happen again and again. It will happen soon.”