Shubhankar Sharma on brink of history, leads star-studded field

Mexico City : Shubhankar Sharma upstaged the biggest names in golf by bravely maintaining his overnight two-shot lead following the third round of the USD 10 million World Golf Championships here, venturing into a territory hitherto unknown to Indian golfers.

The 21-year-old became the first Indian to hold a 54-hole lead in a World Golf Championship, as he added a grinding two-under 69 to move to 13-under.

Shubhankar, with three birdies against one bogey on the front nine, was four shots clear at one stage. He later had two each of birdies and bogeys but made some great saves, including one on 18th.

He is two ahead of some of the biggest names in contemporary golf on a crowded leaderboard.

The top-10 after three rounds are separated by four shots and they include four Major winners — Phil Mickelson (65) and Sergio Garcia (69) at T-2, Dustin Johnson (68) at T-6 and at Tied-10th is Justin Thomas, who was on fire with a record-breaking 9-under 62 at the  Club de Golf Chapultepec.

In the morning five-time Major winner and Hall of famer, Mickelson, initially mistook him for a fan or a journalist and waved Shubhankar off at the practice green before the start of the third round, thinking he was a member of the media.

Mickleson soon realised his error, apologised and wished as he went to the first tee for the start of his round.

The best position for an Indian at a WGC was Tied-1st for Jeev Milkha Singh after the first round at WGC at Doral in 2009 and at the same event, Jeev was T-9 after second round, T-3 after three rounds and eventually finished T-4, the best-ever for an Indian. The winner was Mickelson.

Arjun Atwal, in 2010, carried a 3-shot lead into the final round of the Wyndham Championships, which he won by one shot, and more recently Anirban Lahiri carried a four-shot lead into the final round of the 2016 CIMB Classic, but dropped to Tied-third at the end.

  While Shubhankar at 21 years and seven months is the youngest in the field, Mickelson stands at the other end of the age spectrum at 41 years and eight months. It is not just Mickelson who is in hot pursuit, but a whole lot of others.

On his brief encounter with Mickelson before the round, Shubhankar said, “To be honest, me and my caddie Baaz, we both went up to him. He thought we were media and he said, ‘Not right now, after the round’.

 “Then he just realised and said, ‘So sorry, I thought you were media’, and he said ‘hi’, I said hi. Then he made a few putts and he came back to me and said, ‘Have a good day’.