Shubhankar Sharma narrowly misses Cyprus cut in unique showdown
Sharma was one shot away from making the top-16 in the European Tour event.
Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma exited the European Tour’s Cyprus Showdown on Saturday after being unable to progress to the final round by a single shot.
The European Tour event at the Aphrodite Hills Resort in Paphos, Cyprus is following a unique format where only the top-32 and tied players make the weekend cut. The scores are reset before the weekend and only the top-16 progress to the fourth and final round on Sunday.
While Shubhankar Sharma comfortably made the top-32 on Saturday, he was one shot away in his bid to make the final round.
The Indian golfer had a quiet opening in the third round. He ended par without being able to card a birdie on the front nine. Moreover, bogies on the fourth and seventh holes put him at a disadvantage going onto the back nine.
However, the 24-year-old Sharma upped his game soon enough.
He sank consecutive birdies on the par-5 10th and par-4 11th. Two pars followed before Sharma carded a third birdie on the par-4 14th and ended on a high with another birdie on the 18th. It gave Sharma a third-round score of two-under 69.
However, the effort was only good enough for tied-20th, as Belgian golfer Thomas Detry went through as the 16th player. Detry also had four birdies in the round but crucially, only had one bogey compared to Sharma’s two.
Englishman Matthew Jordan and Johannes Veerman of USA recorded the best score of the round with identical 64s.
Veerman enjoyed a bogey-free round, which included five birdies and an eagle, while Jordan sunk six birdies and an eagle to nullify his early bogey on the par-5 third.
However, both golfers will have to do it all over again on Sunday as the scores will be reset, giving all 16 players an equal chance of taking home the title.