Irish Open: Front nine show keeps Shubhankar Sharma in sight of glory

Kildare (Ireland), September 9

Shubhankar Sharma dropped a late bogey after a splendid front nine to shoot a 6-under 66 and grab the joint lead at the Horizon Irish Open.

Sharma shared the lead with Jordan Smith, who seemed to be moving into a sole lead before he had a double-bogey on the challenging 17th hole.

Smith closed with a birdie for a 7-under 65 and he was also 13-under on the Palmer North Course at the K Club.

The star-studded field includes Rory McIlroy (69-70) in the tied-26th place and Shane Lowry (68-68) is T-9th.

Things did not go well for Sharma’s countryman Manu Gandas (73-78) as he missed the cut by a big margin.

Sharma, seeking his first DP World Tour victory since 2018, raced through the front nine in 7-under 28 with seven birdies and two pars. At that stage, Sharma, after 27 holes, was bogey-free and 14-under.

A bogey each on the 10th and the 17th holes, where he went into the water, pushed him back as he had two bogeys and a birdie on the 11th for a day’s work of 6-under after an impressive first-round 7-under.

At 13-under, he was six shots ahead of the next player at one stage. By the end of the day, Sharma was joined by Smith.

“It was a really quick start. Very early morning start for us, so I was a bit sleepy in the morning. I managed to make a lot of putts on the front nine,” Sharma said. “I had nine single putts which was amazing. I don’t think I’ve done that before. Everything was just going nicely. I was hitting it in the right spots and I was really good inside ten feet. So it all came together. It was amazing.” — PTI

Ahlawat drops to 81 in South Korea

Incheon: Veer Ahlawat, the only Indian to make the cut in the Shinhan Donghae Open, crashed to a round of 79 and dropped to 81st on the leaderboard after three days. Ahlawat, who was tied-23 after two rounds, had five bogeys and a double-bogey and no birdies in a disappointing round. Former champion Richard T Lee and South Korea’s Guntaek Koh, in form with two domestic wins this year, were in the reckoning for the title win after taking a share of the third-round lead.