Shubhankar scrambles into contention

Birthdays are supposed to be relaxed days, when you get pampered and receive gifts. Shubhankar Sharma had none of it. The Indian turned 27 battling, scrambling and displaying a masterclass in mental tenacity as he put himself into contention at the 151st Open Championship.

To be fair, Royal Liverpool Golf Club did not know it was his birthday. The conditions were brutal and bamboozled even the best in the game. Dropping shots were far easier than picking one, but Sharma knuckled down and made the most of the meagre birdie offerings that were available.

In the end, it was an even-par 71 round that took him to 3-under par total at the halfway stage of the oldest annual sporting event in the world. He is seven adrift of the runaway leader, American Brian Harman at 10-under par, but at the time of writing the report, he was in tied third place.

There are still 36 holes to be played, with poor weather forecast for the weekend, but for the record, the best Indian finish at the Open Championship is tied 27th place by Jyoti Randhawa in the 2004 edition at Royal Troon.

The five pars off the blocks were all solid. And then he too fell prey to the challenging wind. At Royal Liverpool, if you miss the fairways, life becomes difficult. Sharma scrambled brilliantly each time he missed the green, including a stunning birdie on the seventh hole where he putted from far away from the green and the ball tracked right into the heart of the cup after traversing nearly 50 feet.

His father being an armyman, Sharma surely knows the value of bunkers. That’s not true on this golf course though. If you go into any one of them, especially the ones in the fairways, it’s a guaranteed loss of shot. For the second straight round, he avoided all 81 of them on the golf course.

Not every battle could have been won given the conditions, and Sharma finally lost his on the 136-yard par-3 17th, the most talked about hole of the golf course. Anything short, long, left, or right there is like an irrevocable death sentence. The only safe haven is the elevated green surface. Caught between an 8-iron and a nine, he slightly pulled his tee shot which went over, and that resulted in a double bogey.

But if that double bogey was deflating, the smile was back on his face with a brilliant bounce-back birdie on the par-5 18th.

“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. Especially with the ground being hard, connection and contact was very important,” said Sharma, who is ranked 276th in the world.

“But very happy. The wind was definitely a lot more than what we played yesterday. I told myself a level par round would not be a bad round today. Obviously, didn’t want that 17th to happen and finish level par like that, but if I look at it as a whole, I’m quite happy. Still in it. Still two more days to go and hopefully, and I will be good.”

An even-keeled Sharma refused to get excited by his position on the leaderboard.

“It’s only the second day, so it really doesn’t matter. Even if I was tied 50th, it’s golf, so you’ve just got to get up, do your process again,” said the two-time champion on the DP World Tour.

“Until it’s back nine on Sunday, your position really doesn’t matter. You can’t lose a tournament in the first two days. That’s important to remember. I’m just happy that I’m in and around the top-10 mark.”

The 36-year-old Harman, ranked 26th in the world, made four successive birdies from the second hole, then made some incredible par saves before a grandstand finish on the 18th with an eagle.

Harman last won a title in 2017, and is trying not to think too far ahead, even when sitting on what seems like a comfortable five-shot lead halfway through the second round.

“Just not trying to get too caught up in it. It’s just golf. I think when I held the 54-hole lead at the US Open, I just probably thought about it too much,” said Harman. “Just didn’t focus on getting sleep and eating right. So that would be my focus this weekend.”

Pre-tournament favourite, world No2 Rory McIlroy made a birdie on the last hole to get into red numbers and is one-under par for the tournament.

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