Shubhankar Sharma soars high in Mexico

02 March 2018: They do not make debuts any better than Shubhankar Sharma. Betraying any signs of stage fright, Sharma floated into the collective consciousness of the international media with a sensational 65 in the first round of the WGC Mexico at the Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City.

Here are the excerpts from his post-round presser –

Q. Shubhankar, the guy on the top of the leaderboard shot the best round in a WGC event and you’re just one shot behind. That’s not a bad day’s work for a debut.
SHUBHANKAR SHARMA: No, I’m really pleased with the way I played. I was very nervous in the morning, but very happy with the way I put it all together. Even after the rain delay that we had, just to make birdie on the last hole, absolutely fantastic.

Q. Did the rain delay remind you at all of Joburg? Of course you had a great time there in the altitude and of course, you had the interruption today.
SHUBHANKAR SHARMA: This one was a bit different, it was only 15 minutes long; there it was four hours. So yeah, I did well there, so I probably don’t mind rain delays.
Q. You greeted your birdie on 18 with a fist pump only to go on and make an eagle on the first. That’s not a bad way to make the turn.
SHUBHANKAR SHARMA: It’s not a bad way at all. I was really happy with the birdie I made on 18. It was a very, very tough putt, almost two feet of break on that putt. On the first, it’s just about hitting the right shot and positioning yourself. So I couldn’t have hit it in a better place. I was just short of the green and had a very easy chip shot.

Q. A lot of the guys last year struggled with the altitude. You’re of course making that adaptation, but with your victory at Joburg, it’s obviously a course and a condition that you’re very comfortable with?
SHUBHANKAR SHARMA: I guess it’s easier because obviously Joburg, the ball was flying longer there as well. But this is obviously a lot more elevation than Joburg so there are a few changes that we had to make, but we got three days and I think I adjusted pretty well.

Q. What was the key to today?
SHUBHANKAR SHARMA: I would say my tee shots, most of them were in the fairway. You really need that to have to go low, especially on a course like this. It’s tree-lined, it’s a very old-style golf course, you don’t want to miss many fairways. So I was very happy with the way I drove the ball. I was struggling with it on Monday and put in some work the last two days. Was pretty happy with the way I drove the ball and I think that was the key.

Q. Obviously the highlight was the eagle on 1, but that seemed to be like an easy hole as well. Just talk us through those two shots that you hit.
SHUBHANKAR SHARMA: I hit a good 3-wood, a really good 3-wood. It was a headwind at that time. We were thinking about maybe laying up. I was hitting it good, so I told my caddie that it was better that I hit a 3-wood. Couldn’t have hit a better 3-wood, just started at the pin drifting a little bit to the right, just on the edge. Couldn’t have had a better second shot. Even the second shot, the grass was towards the hole, it was a very easy chip up the hill. I was just actually thinking of making it. Because normally you hit a good shot and you think of making up-and-down for birdie, you tend to miss it. So I was chipping well and I just told myself to just go ahead and make it.

Q. And you nearly holed out on 9 as well. Did you see that?
SHUBHANKAR SHARMA: Yeah, I saw it was like two feet from the hole but I didn’t see how it came there. I saw it land pretty close to the hole, and as soon as I hit it I knew I hit a good shot.

Q. With this start now, you’re well up there on the leaderboard. What’s the outlook for the next two days, especially tomorrow?
SHUBHANKAR SHARMA: To be honest, I’m actually relaxed now. I just wanted the first round to get out of the way. You’re always very happy when you start with such a low round, especially for me. This is such a big event, I would say this is taking some pressure off me, playing well on this course. And I proved to myself that I can roll it, so I’ll just do the same things that I’ve been doing.