March 22, 2018: The much-awaited battle between Shubhankar Sharma and Sergio Garcia turned out to be a thrilling duel in the desert. The young upstart stood tall against his giant opponent, the reigning Masters champion. The pulsating battle went the distance before Garcia produced a brilliant bunker shot at the 18th to steal a 1Up victory from his brave-hearted opponent.
Earlier in the day, the WGC Dell Match Play match seemed to be going to script for Garcia, who is a freshly minted parent. Sergio and his wife Angela welcomed their daughter Azalea Adele Garcia barely a week ago. The Spaniard made birdies at the second and fourth to race ahead of his young opponent.
Shubhankar stalled the momentum though before Garcia could run away completely. The latter found the fairway bunker at the fifth and the Indian needed only to make par to move back to one down.
A pair of birdies at the par-5 6th hole and the 7th made it three in a row for Shubhankar, who was now one up on his pedigreed opponent. Sharma carried his advantage past the bend, but a brilliant tee shot by Sergio set up a birdie at the par-3 11th hole.
The intense tussle continued to swing one way and then another – as the two men traded blows at the 13th and 14th holes to advance into the final stretch evenly matched. Both men made pars from the 15th through 17th, setting up a thrilling winner takes all 18th hole.
Garcia drove it 329 yards into the fairway bunker, giving himself a clear view of the green. Unfortunately for Shubhankar, he sailed his drive way left, beyond the rough guarding the fairway. The 62nd ranked Indian worked his way back to the green but left himself a difficult 45 footer to the flag.
Meanwhile, Sergio got nicely out of the sand, needing just a tidy six-footer to end the contest. When Shubhankar’s third shot went past the cup, one of the best matches on the day went the Spaniard’s way.
“It was very tight. I did some good things, some not so good things. I kept myself in the game the whole way without my A game, I guess.”
Garcia had to earn it the hard way – as a determined Shubhankar took his champion opponent all the way to the final green. Garcia needed five birdies in his final eight holes, to edge past Sharma. Shubhankar, playing in his first match play event as a professional, made three birdies on Wednesday, but only one of those helped him gain a hole.
Courtesy PGA TOUR
In other matches, there were some stunning upsets.
Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson lost in the opening round and now face a tough road to the weekend in the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Bernd Wiesberger of Austria ended Johnson’s seven-match winning streak and had plenty of help in a 3 and 1 victory.
Former U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein caught McIlroy a little flat and built too big of a lead for McIlroy to overcome. McIlroy birdied five in a row on the back nine at Austin Country Club until losing on the 17th hole.
Mickelson, who won the last World Golf Championship in Mexico three weeks ago, made only one birdie in losing to Charles Howell III.
Only four players in this round-robin format have won their group after losing the first match.
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- Pros
- sergio garcia
- shubhankar sharma
- WGC – Dell Match Play
