Wentworth (UK): Shubhankar Sharma produced an action-packed six-under 66 with nine birdies and three bogeys to climb up the leaderboard to joint third at the end of the third round of the BMW PGA Championships Saturday.
Sharma carded 66 with nine birdies and three bogeys, including one on the 18th. He moved to 12-under and was third alongside 2016 Olympic champion and former US Open winner Justin Rose (69) and South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout (69), who was also at 12-under.
Sharma may well have been better but for his bogey on 18th. Three shots ahead of Sharma were joint-leader Jon Rahm, World No. 6, and the 2016 Masters winner, Danny Willett, both of whom were at 15-under.
Rahm at one stage reached 16-under but bogeyed 17th, while Willett went up to 15-under with a birdie on 18th.
Sharma was thrilled with the round as he said, “It was a good round. Made a lot of birdies. Gave myself a lot of opportunities and pretty pleased with the way I played. Obviously it’s my first time playing at Wentworth and learning more about the course with more rounds.
“I was reading the greens really well. All in all, pretty solid day. I’ve not been playing bad the last few weeks. It’s just about putting in four good rounds together. It’s just about getting right breaks and putting in four good rounds. It’s a great course. A lot of birdie opportunities. So anything’s possible and I’ll try my best tomorrow.”
The 21-year-old Sharma has been struggling with results and had no Top-10s since his T-sixth at the Hong Kong Open last December. He did have a T-2 but it was on Indian domestic tour, which fetched him some valuable world ranking points.
After a modest one-under 71 on first day, Sharma produced a flawless 67 on second day with five birdies.
He exploded with a stunning round Saturday. He turned in four-under with five birdies against one bogey and then added further birdies on 10th, 12th, 16th and 17th against bogeys on 13th and 18th.
A pumped up Sharma birdied the 17th where many of the higher ranked players dropped a shot, but he gave away a shot on 18th while trying to get closer to the leaders.
Sharma shot a 62 in the final round of Maybank Championships at the start of 2018 and the 61 in the second round of Joburg Championships in late 2017. Both times Sharma took home the Trophy.
The presentation of the ‘Rookie of the Year’ Trophy for 2018 at the start of this week at Wentworth seems to have inspired him as he won the Pro-Am and now being in his best position on the Tour after a long gap.
He also made big amends for the triple bogey he shot on first day. SSP Chawrasia (72-78) missed the cut, which will fall at one-over.