Sharma clinches title to take Race to Dubai lead
dubai — The Race to Dubai has a new leader after Shubhankar Sharma claimed his second European Tour victory of the season in sensational style at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia to shoot to the top of the Rankings.
The exciting 21-year-old talent from India closed with a breathtaking round of 62 to finish two strokes ahead of overnight leader Jorge Campillo to pick up 500,000 points and take his season tally to 748,073, moving him from eighth position into the Race to Dubai top spot, previously occupied by England’s Tommy Fleetwood. A debut in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai is now all but confirmed too.
Sharma started the final round at Saujana Golf Club four shots behind Spaniard Jorge Campillo however five birdies in his first nine holes saw him rise to the top of the leaderboard. The Indian never looked back and went on to hole five more birdies in his final nine holes to sign for 62 and finish the championship with an outstanding 21 under par 267.
“I played pretty solid and it wasn’t easy because it was windy,” said Sharma who becomes only the third Indian after Jeev Mikha Singh and Anirban Lahiri to win two European Tour events in the same season. “I kept pushing the whole day. I knew I had to make a lot birdies to catch the leaders. I made a lot of birdies on the front nine and just continued on the back.”
Meanwhile Campillo’s runnerup finish saw him leapfrog from 43rd to seventh in the Race to Dubai with a season tally of 395,715. Ryan Fox also shot up the rankings after a tied third finish saw him rise from 102nd to 14th in the Race to Dubai. The Kiwi now sits on 195,007 points for the season. Hideto Tanihara of Japan made significant strides after his tied fifth finish saw him break into the top 30 after starting the week off in 114th place and now has 114,230 points for the season.