ROYAL TROON (SCOTLAND): Shubhankar Sharma gave his Olympic hopes a major fillip with a gritty 72 in tough conditions at Royal Troon in the 152nd Open. "I am proud of the fightback, and it will hold m e in good stead for my first Olympic Games next month in Paris," said Sharma, who also celebrated his 28th birthday on Sunday.
Though conditions were not as tough as the first two days, the conditions on Sunday were not a cakewalk as Sharma began with strong wind and cold breeze in attendance. Sharma showed great grit and hung in with a lot of determination to bring home a final round of 1-over 72 and finished 3-over 287 for the week and inside Top-20 for the second straight year. He was T-8 last year at Royal Liverpool.
Meanwhile, reigning PGA Champion and Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Xander Scahuffele (65) took a 3-shot lead with three holes to go and went on to win by two shots to become the first player since Brooks Koepka to win two Majors in the same year. Schauffele ended at 9-under 275. Koepka won the US Open and the PGA Championships in 2018.
Tied for the second place were Justin Rose (67), a 2013 US Open winner, and the third-round leader, Billy Horschel (68), who birdied the 72nd hole to get to 7-under 277.
South African Thriston Lawrence, who has never finished better than T-42 in a Major (at the Open in 2022), dropped his first bogey of the day on the 12th and fell back from the lead to second. Later Rose and Horschel overtook him leaving the long-hitting Lawrence fourth at 6-under 278.
Coming back to Sharma, he had two birdies and dropped three bogeys. One of the bogeys was on the ninth, where he missed a par putt inside eighth feet as the hole took a stroke from him each of the last three days. On the final day, his bogey came on the sixth, where he missed a par from inside four feet, the ninth where he missed from inside eight feet and on the 11th, also called the 'Railway,' as a train track runs next to it. Speaking on the week, Sharma said, "It was a good week. Second and third day I played brilliant, so no complaints. Today could have been slightly better. Overall I played really well. I'm quite proud of myself. It's probably the toughest Open that I've played out of the four that I've played. Hung in there, made some great putts. Quite happy overall."
He went on, "I like The Open. It just brings the best out of me, and I kind of bookmark it at the start of the year that this is a tournament I want to play and want to play well."
After a T-8 last year, a T-19 finish may seem a bit of disappointment, but he took the positives from the week, a s he came back from the cutline to inside Top-20. He smiled and added, " There will be some celebrations with my family, the entire team and some friends here, but a lot of the season is still left, and I have some big events leading to the DP World finale."
Schauffele, who will defend his Olympic title next month, began with five pars after getting close looks at birdies more than once. He had back-to-back birdies on the sixth and seventh and then added another on 11th to go to 6-under and come alongside Lawrence, who began the day at 3 -under and moved to 6-under by the ninth.
Then Schauffele shifted gears.
