Into his third week of the UK Swing, Shubhankar Sharma continued to mix the good with the bad as he worked out plenty of sweat in the opening round of the Celtic Classic. The Indian went up and down on his card before making two birdies in the last four holes to secure an even 71 to his name. Thomas Pieters climbed to the head of the leaderboard with a seven-under 64, one in front of Toby Tree and Jake McLeod.
Adrian Meronk, Sebastian Soderberg, Edoardo Molinari, Marc Warren, Guido Migliozzi, Sihwan Kim and Nacho Elvira rounded off the top ten at five-under 66.
Shubhankar began his day with a pair of even holes, before diving under par on a pair of birdies at the third and fourth holes. But bogeys at the next two holes meant that the early gains were wiped off the slate rather quickly.
The two-time European Tour winner steadied himself, making six pars over the next seven holes from the 7th, but that run was punctuated by bogeys at the 10th and 14th holes, dropping him to 2-over.
But in a gritty finish, Shubhankar enveloped a couple of even holes with birdies at the par-4 15th and the par-5 18th to return his card to a resistant 71.
Pieters conceded a bogey on the par-5 second hole, but that was just the lone scar on his otherwise delicious card. The lanky Belgian scored in pairs as he made four sets of twins for a brilliant 64.
“It was pretty good. I putted well and kept my ball in play, so I didn’t really get myself in trouble,” Pieters said.
“It was tough pulling clubs sometimes and I put some new grips on which were very slippery, so I was struggling with that all day.
“It has been fantastic. I miss my little baby girl, but I am thankful I can play golf right now. It is the first event in five months, so it feels nice to get out there and actually put a score down.”
It was the perfect return to action for Pieters who skipped the first three events of the UK swing, to celebrate the arrival of his first daughter, Florence.
- In this article
- Pros
- Celtic Classic
- european tour
- Thomas Pieters
