Doha: India’s Shubhankar Sharma currently having a dream run on the European Tour is aiming to crack into the top-50 and one day reach the summit ranking.
Already a two-time winner on the Tour, the 21-year-old will have a crack at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters which tees off today at the Doha Golf Club.
Sharma is currently sitting pretty as the European Tour’s number one player after winning twice in just six appearances this season, and only 13 career appearances on the tour.
The 21 year old Indian is looking forward to making his debut in Qatar.
The Indian consistent show has caught the attention of the golf fraternity. He opened up by winning the Joburg Open and two months later on clinched the Maybank Championship.
“Enjoying being at the top and I’m really happy at the moment, but not surprised by my victories as I was always confident of winning at this level,” Sharma told reporters here yesterday.
“Feeling great it’s early in the season it’s great to have great start couldn’t have asked for a better start. Joburg was fantastic, I just played really well all four days and even pushed it into a Monday finish. I was really calm throughout and it was fantastic. I’m just trying to enjoy it as much as possible. On the other hand, in Malaysia I was not expecting to win on the last day, I just had a crazy final round and got it done,” he said while recollecting his two wins on the Tour.
Sharma dreams of making the World No. 1 rank his own in the coming years.
“I am young, but I am very comfortable playing against top players as I have some experience behind me as I am playing professional golf since last six years. I hope I will achieve my dream to crack into world top 50 and probably become world No 1, a dream of every golfer,” he said.
The Qatar course will have its own challenges, Sharma said.
“European tour is always tough. It’s a new course (Doha Golf Course) for me, but a fantastic one. I think greens are firm, but it will be difficult to put big spin as fairways are narrow,” he said, who is playing in Qatar for the first time.
On his future plans he said: “Right now I am focusing on the Qatar Masters and after that, I have to play in my biggest tournament, the World Golf Championship in Mexico. I’m really excited as it was a goal of mine to get into one WGC event this year.” Sharma said he is an eager learner on the tour and trying to get himself acquainted with different courses.
“All the courses on which I will play this year are new to me, apart from India of course and maybe Malaysia too because I played there last year just fantastic, it just adds to my experience,” he said.
Sharma said he is enjoying life on the tour.
“I’m just meeting new people, going to new places, trying to make many friends on Tour and I’m pretty young so I like to have as much fun as possible.” He said the future for Indian golf is very bright.
“Indian golf future is very good. We are producing good players and you will soon see more Indian players on the European Tour and maybe on the PGA tour,” he added.
