The Open Championship 2023 golf: Shubhankar Sharma’s stupendous show Premium

The Indian was remarkably consistent and displayed admirable grit on a par-71 course at The Open, where many illustrious names took a beating.

Creditable performance: Shubhankar Sharma finished tied-8th at The Open. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

In many individual sporting disciplines, when the world’s elite is on view, Indian performances seldom count for much. Golf is one of them. That’s why when an Indian finishes among the top-10 of a Major, it becomes a talking point.

Shubhankar Sharma did just that in The Open. Though it was the third time an Indian enjoyed a single-digit finish at a Major, the performance is already being seen as the best from the country.

If one goes by the net score of five-under for four rounds, it falls short of looking impressive. But if one considers the challenges of playing on a link course, that too, for someone who does not get to play on these open, wind-swept courses, it merits appreciation. Add to it rain and slushy conditions, and the 276-ranked Shubhankar’s tied-eighth finish deserves all the accolades it has attracted. For the record, in the 156-player field at the world’s oldest Major played this year at the Royal Liverpool Club in England, Shubhankar shot rounds of 68, 71, 70, 70. He was remarkably consistent and displayed admirable grit on a par-71 course where many illustrious names took a beating.

Compared to Shubhankar’s aggregate of 279, American Brian Harman proved a runaway winner with a stunning score of 13-under 271. Shubhankar, who turned 27 on the second day of the competition, collected Euros 361,975.97 ($403,350) for coming up with the best finish by an Indian at The Open. In his previous two appearances at The Open, in 2018 and 2019, Shubhankar finished 51st.

Apart from the prize-money, the top-10 finish also earned Shubhankar a spot in the next edition of The Open. He jumped 111 spots to be 165 in World rankings. This was the second best finish by an Indian in a Major, following Anirban Lahiri’s tied-fifth at the 2015 PGA Championship. Jeev Milkha Singh is the only other Indian to break into the top-10 of a Major by taking the tied-ninth spot at the 2008 PGA Championship.

Braving the odds: Shubhankar’s effort should rank a notch higher due to the testing conditions he faced during the week.  | Photo Credit: AP

Compared to the best showings of his predecessors, Shubhankar’s effort should rank a notch higher due to the testing conditions he faced during the week. Commendably, he did not shoot a single over-par round. Understandably, in such windy conditions, keeping the ball in play is never easy. Rain made it worse, especially on the final day.

“I don’t like to talk much about my own game but I am very proud of what I managed to accomplish during the week. This was probably the best round of golf that I’ve played in my life,” declared Shubhankar, when talking about his final round.

A quick look at cards reveals that he had solid starts each day, went over-par just for one hole on the second day, saved some amazing pars and never went out of the top-10 after breaking in, on the first day. His lone double-bogey — on the par-3 17th on the second day — took him to one-over par for the round but the birthday boy immediately sank a birdie to sign off with a par.

“It wasn’t easy out there at all. It was up and down. Downwind, the ball was being affected almost 20-25 yards, and into the wind, the same. But again, flight is very important when you’re hitting those shots. If you hit it slightly low, the wind batters it down and it doesn’t go anywhere. So that was always a challenge. With the ground being hard, connection and contact was very important,” explained Shubhankar.

Talking about the second round, he said, “the wind was definitely a lot more than what we experienced a day earlier. I told myself a level par round would not be a bad round. Obviously, I didn’t want that 17th to happen and finish level par like that, but if I look at it as a whole, I’m happy.”

Over the weekend, Shubhankar was steady, like very few. His eagle on the par-5 fifth on the third day was partially off-set by his lone bogey on the 16th. On the final day, when he had pars on 17 holes, the birdie on the 14th kept him under-par and in the top-10 for the week.

“My only disappointment was not making a 10-footer birdie putt on the 18th hole after hitting a really good five-iron approach shot over the greenside bunkers, but I just can’t complain,” said the man whose finish erased the previous best finish by an Indian at The Open. It was Jyoti Randhawa who finished tied 27th in the 2004 edition.

A two-time winner on the European Tour, Shubhankar is looking to build on the confidence gained from this stupendous performance. After all, this comes after missing 15 cuts since finishing tied-seventh at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship earlier this year.

Even in the run-up to The Open, Shubhankar believed his play was good. “I’m playing well. And I’ve been telling my coach and my dad that I’ve been playing really well. There were a few technical issues a month ago that I was trying to figure out with the swing. Now I am hitting the ball well and driving nicely, which are huge positives.”