Sharma, Chawrasia miss out in Qatar

Rising Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma lasted only two days at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters as he missed his second cut in back-to-back tournaments yesterday.Sharma playing for the first time here, overcame a double-bogey to post a three-under 69 in the opening but started the second round with a bogey. However, he quickly made up on the next hole. Seven pars followed that before he bogeyed the par-5 ninth. After four pars, he was still 2-under and seemingly out of the cut. But a birdie on 16th gave him a chance as he was back at 3-under. Sharma, who was struggling with his drive at the Doha Golf Club’s narrow fairways, needed a birdie on either 17th or 18th to get to 4-under, which was the cutline. But he failed with both, managing only pars and finished tied-38th.“The conditions are good, but you have to hit the fairways, which are very narrow,” Sharma said. It was his second successive missed cut after his superb win at Maybank Malaysian Championships early this month. He also failed to make cut at the NBO Oman Open.Sharma is next going to play in Mexico, where he makes his WGC debut.“I am due to play in WGC, my biggest tournament next month,” said the Chandigarh golfer.The 21-year-old, who is on top of both the European and Asian Tour Order of Merit lists by virtue of two wins in less than two months.Things did not pan out too well for another Indian in the fray SSP Chawrasia, who defends his Hero Indian Open title in just over two weeks from now. Chawrasia shot a 1-over 73 for the tied-105th spot.