Twenty-two-year-old becomes the fifth and youngest Indian to achieve the feat
Pune: India’s Shubhankar Sharma is the new Asia No. 1. The 22-year-old Shubhankar emerged as the 2018 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion following a dream season in Asia which saw him achieve many milestones and rewrite many Indian records.
The Chandigarh-based Sharma now becomes the fifth and youngest Indian to top the Asian Tour money list in a particular season.
He joined the exclusive club of Indians who have achieved the feat in the past—Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun Atwal (2003), Jeev Milkha Singh (2006 and 2008) and Anirban Lahiri (2015).
Anirban Lahiri held the previous record of being the youngest Indian to be crowned Asia No. 1.
It’s been a meteoric rise for Shubhankar over the last two seasons. He played his first full season in Asia in 2016 when he finished 55th in the money list and retained his card for 2017.
Then his breakthrough win at the 2017 Joburg Open saw him finish an impressive seventh on the Asian Tour money list for 2017. Sharma carried his winning momentum over to the new season and clinched his second Asian Tour title at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia where he earned a winner’s cheque of US$500,000.
A month later in March, Shubhankar posted a commendable tied seventh at the Hero Indian Open on his home soil that helped him climb to a career-high 64th in the world rankings.
Outside the Asian Tour, Sharma has a top-10 at the 2018 WGC-Mexico Championship, he played all four Majors and all four WGC events this year and he also clinched the European Tour Rookie of the Year award.
