Gurgaon: With the DLF course wearing an even longer and meaner look than usual, the Hero 54th Indian Open that gets under way here on Thursday has probably never been so short of a clear-cut favourite. Over the past three years, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia and Anirban Lahiri have worn the tag comfortably. This time, it could all be very different.
Quite naturally, Shubhankar Sharma is the flavour of the season. The 21-year-old carries his recent success with ease and with the Augusta Masters’ organisers extending him an invitation, interest in his prospects have soared. Yet, the way the course has been set up and is playing, it threatens to overshadow individual names and every one of the 143 professionals who tees off here will be tested to the full.
“I will pick my battles here very carefully,” said Lahiri, asked how aggressive a golfer could get with the course set-up. “This golf course, as we’ve seen with S.S.P., rewards percentage play, so you have to think hard and you have to be very precise with your strategy.” He could well have added another X factor — distance — as at least four tees, on the 10th, 15th, 16th and 17th holes, have been pushed back quite some way.
Still and all, Indian hopes certainly will have received a boost in the way Sharma has dazzled on the world stage. His maiden WGC outing in Mexico was the stuff of dreams when he led the field on the second and third days before finishing tied ninth.
Playing cool and collected golf, Sharma led the likes of Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and eventual winner Phil Mickleson well into the fourth day before the wheels came off his challenge.
“I took a lot of positives in Mexico. I played in front of a massive crowd… I gave my 100 per cent, Sharma said.
