Abu Dhabi, Jan 17: Shubhankar Sharma added a two-under 70 to his first round 71 to safely sail into the weekend rounds of the of the 2020 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. But, he was still unhappy with his iron play and approach shots.
At three-under 141 for 36 holes, he is Tied-35th, while fellow Indian, Gaganjeet Bhullar (79-74) exited early from the tournament. The cut fell cut fell at one-under 143.
Italian Francesco Laporta closed with a brilliant streak of five birdies over the last five holes to card a bogey-free 63 and overtook Matt Fitzpatrick whose blemish-free 67 in the morning had set the early clubhouse target. Just before Laporta finished, Rafa Cabrera Bello carded four-under 68 to add to his first round 67 and joined Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick, who has won once in Dubai at the DP World, and Cabrera-Bello are one shot behind at 135.
World No. 1 Brooks Koepka (75) started birdieee-birdie but was then full of errors and ended three-over for the day. He had two double bogeys and two other bogeys on Par-5s, the eighth and 18th and had only four birdies, as against an error-free 66 on first day.
Sharma said, “Once again the iron shots did not work well. I did not get close to the pin often enough to give myself more chances. The front nine was a good start that I was looking for. But I needed to hit my irons better and I bogeyed thee 12thand 13th, the latter being a three-putt. The putting was also not the way I liked. Maybe a little rust after the break for more than month, but hopefully it will turn around over the weekend.
Sharma had four birdies against two bogeys, and he also rued missing out on birdies on three of the four Par-5s. “I need to get those score better. “In the first round I missed out on two Par-5s and today I did not birdies on three of them.”
In his two appearances at the Abu Dhabi Championship, Sharma finished T-48 in 2018 and missed the cut last year.
Bhullar, who had a triple bogey on Par-3 seventh, started with a double on Par-5 10thand had two other bogeys and two birdies as he missed the cut by a huge margin.
Trailing the top three, Laporta, Fitzpatrick and Cabrera-Bello, are three players at eight-under including first-round co-leader, Renato Paratore (72) and the others are Sergio Garcia (67-69) and Li Haotong (67-69).
Koepka refused to make any excuses – neither lack of play nor the knee – and said, “No, no. I don’t know, everybody likes to make an excuse. It’s just me.”
“Just timing was a bit off. Didn’t hit that many good shots the last 15 holes. Good on the first two (birdies on first and second) but other than that, it was a bit of a disaster. Going to go to the range and just figure it out, just a little bit of time.”
“It’s just timing. It will take 15 balls. Yeah, it’s a lot different on the golf course trying to do it because there are consequences.”
Among the world stars missing the cut was the 2019 Open winner and the defending champion in Abu Dhabi, Shane Lowry (70-74) who finished bogey-bogey and crashed out.
Also going back early was young gun Viktor Hovland (73-71) who earlier won the Hero Challenge. Two former Masters champions, Charl Schwartzel (72-73) and Danny Willett (71-75) also missed out. Ian Poulter, Padraig Harrington, Bryson DeChambeau also missed the cut.
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Round 1 – Sharma upset with late bogeys, Koepka in full flow on return from injury
