Shubhankar Sharma has seen highs and lows of golf in a short span of two years.
Sharma became the youngest Indian to win on the European Tour — by more than six years — when he claimed the tri-sanctioned Joburg Open title in December 2017 as a 21-year-old.
He won his second title — Maybank Championship in Malaysia — in February 2018 to become the Race to Dubai leader. He was ranked 64th in the world, but his form left him in the second half of the 2018, pushing him down to 330th spot.
Sharma, currently ranked 279, sounded confident on the eve of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
“I am still working on a few things and I feel it will take some time for everything to settle in. The season has just started. I am very happy to be back here after a year,” Sharma told Gulf Times yesterday.
Sharma had five top-10 finishes in 2018 but could not sustain the momentum and managed only four top-20 finishes in the past year. He is trying to learn something each day, he said yesterday.
“The (three-year) journey on the European Tour has been nice. It is obviously a journey I love. This is what I always dreamt of doing. It is a kind of game you keep learning something every day.”
The 23-year-old, who has spent six years as a pro, sounded determined to improve on the joint 59th that he secured in the 2018 Qatar Masters.
“I have played all four events in the region this year. This is the last event in the desert. We all look forward to it. Hopefully I can finish it off on a good note and then move to the next part of the season.
“The last year was okay but the year before last was very good. Hopefully I can put up a few good performances and do better this season,” Sharma said.
“I did not play here last year, but it is a new course here and I am looking forward to playing the first round,” he added.
Comparing the Education City Golf Club, the new venue of the tournament, with the Doha Golf Club, he said, “I played at the Doha Golf Club two years ago. I feel this course is much windier than DGC. I played on this course on the past two days. I am playing Pro-Am today. It is a nice course and the conditions are very nice and I really liked it.
“Obviously it is very windy here. Everything will be kind of affected. It is going to be tough test here so everyone will have to play really well here (to survive),” he said.
Sharma will play his first two rounds with Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaar and Finland’s Kalle Samooja.
India’s Shubhankar Sharma in action during the Pro-Am competition ahead of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters at Education City Golf Club yesterday. PICTURE: Jayaram
