Sharma finishes 14th at Dutch Open
India’s Shubhankar Sharma completed a good week, laced with 18 birdies, with a Tied-14th finish at the Dutch Open on the DP World Tour.
Sharma had as many as 18 birdies over four days. But the Indian also gave away 13 bogeys.
The finish would nevertheless give Sharma a big boost, considering he missed four cuts in five previous starts.
After three birdies in his opening 71, Sharma had six birdies in a second round 71 and six more in his third round 69.
The final round saw two birdies on front nine but he gave away three bogeys in his first six holes on back nine before closing with a birdie on 18th for the third time in four days.
With a packed calendar ahead, Sharma will hope his birdie-making skills come good even as he works on cutting down the bogeys to improve on his 17th place on the Race to Dubai rankings.
The other two Indians, Gaganjeet Bhullar (73-74) and SSP Chawrasia (74-77) had missed the cut.
Meanwhile, the Dundee-based Frenchman Victor Perez, 29, was exceptional in clutch putting and held off Kiwi Ryan Fox in a play-off to win his second DP World Tour title.
Perez started the final day in a share of the lead but following Fox’s great show, he was three shots back as he stood on the 17th tee.
Fox double bogeyed the 18th and Perez birdied the penultimate hole and then missed a six footer for birdie. The duo went into a tie and a play-off down the par-five 18th.
Perez also earns himself a spot at The 150th Open Championship this summer alongside Fox and Pole Adrian Meronk, with the top three players in the top ten not exempt heading to St Andrews.
Meronk finished a shot out of the play-off after a 68, a score matched by German Marcel Schneider who finished at 11 under.
Swede Sebastian Soderberg and England’s Matt Wallace were at ten under, two shots ahead of another Swede in Alexander Björk and Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia.
