Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma ready for Open challenge

Anirban Lahiri in his sixth Open Championship and Shubhankar Sharma in his first present an interesting mix of experience and curiosity

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Carnoustie, 17 July 2018: The days are long in Angus, on the Southern tip of Scotland. It is that time of the season and a good reminder of the fact that the Open Championship will be a drawn out affair at the Carnoustie Golf Links. The course sits on the coast, hugging the North Sea even as the winding Barry Burn cuts through it like an enormous snake.

The weather has been spectacularly good this week. With the Sun baking the grounds, the fairways are behaving like a formula one race track, except that they are made treacherous by unseemly mounds that can send the ball bouncing into the pot bunkers or into the thick fescue.

Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma have uniquely different challenges.

The former has enjoyed some good results – the T5 in the 2014 PGA Championship is the best result ever for an Indian in a major. Anirban was also T31 in 2012 and T30 in 2015 at the Open Championship. He has already played five opens, making three cuts, so he has adequate experience, not only of links golf, but also of playing on this stage.

When he tees off on Thursday, it will be his 14th major, just one shy of the most appearances by an Indian in the majors, a mark held by Jeev Milkha Singh.

After a turbulent start to the year, Anirban went into reparations, working with his coach Vijay Divecha to fix the chinks in his armour. His performance at Greenbrier where he shot 62 has been nothing short of brilliant. Even though the course changed significantly for the weekend, dropping Anirban down the order, he took plenty of positives from the tournament.

“I have been in a transition with the change in equipment. I also had some issues with my technique,” he told Golfing Indian. “But all of that is behind me and I feel good about my game after spending some time with Vijay.

“I have a lot of ground to make up. I would like to get back inside the top 50 and the winners circle, been three years already,” he added. “The transition is now behind me. I am happy with the way I am swinging and putting. So it is a matter of time now.” Indian fans would love nothing more than have that week be this one.”

Even during practice, Anirban was in his element. Both in body and spirit. Playing some exuberant golf, he took his time to try out various scenarios around the greens to prepare for the battle that lay ahead. He seems ready to go and if he does find some inspiration on Thursday, there is a good chance that he might go low and even contend for honours.

Shubhankar is making rapid strides. But he is also earning his stripes in the process. The young man turns 22 on Saturday and nothing would be a better birthday present than a good sequence of low scores.

The golfer from Chandigarh had never played links golf before he touched down a couple of weeks back at the Irish Open. Even though he may have missed the cuts at the Irish and Scottish Opens, he has made clear progress over the course of those two weeks.

The first round 68 at Gullane underlined his ability to learn quickly and execute well. After dropping out of the weekend at 4-over at the Irish Open, Shubhankar left Gullane feeling positive after posting scores of 68 and 70. Unfortunately though, 2-under was just not good enough last week.

On a positive note, that enabled Shubhankar to arrive early in Carnoustie. “I worked nine holes on Sunday, ten on Monday and eleven today, so we have worked the entire course. We will go play nine or ten holes tomorrow.”

“Especially with the tee shots, there are two, three things that are very important. First you need to understand how the fairway is sliding, check what the wind is doing and then make sure you pick the right club and shot,” explained Shubhankar in an exclusive conversation with Golfing Indian.

Shubhankar is looking forward to the challenge, fuelled by the many memories that have lined his brain as he aspired to emulate his heroes.

We should be set for a thrilling week of golf, with two of India’s finest ready to take on the links course that many believe is one of the toughest challenges anywhere on the planet.

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