Indian golf’s depth of talent will once again be on display as eight players, including the country's latest sensation Shubhankar Sharma, tee off at the Volvo China Open here on Thursday.
Seven of the eight Indians in the field this week have won in the past and are capable of turning up with winning form. However, the Indian contingent does not include last week’s winner, Rahil Gangjee, who decided to stay back in Japan to play another event this week.
Leading the brigade is Shubhankar, whose twin wins in Jo'burg and Malaysia plus the T-9 finish at the WGC-Mexico catapulted him into world focus.
However, Shubhankar, who leads the Asian Tour’s ‘Habitat for Humanity’ Rankings, has not been able to repeat those showing in the starts he gained in the US on the PGA Tour.
Sharma missed the cut at Houston Open, Masters and the Texas Open, but at 21 he is still finding his feet around. In between, Sharma, who is also second in the Race to Dubai rankings, has come to Asia for the Volvo China Open, which 12 years ago was won by Jeev Milkha Singh.
The Indian component of the field includes Shubhankar and Jeev besides which there are strong players like Shiv Kapur, winner of the recent Panasonic Swing, who also won three times in 2017.
Also to be seen in action are SSP Chawrasia, a two-time winner of Hero Indian Open in his four European Tour wins, eight-time Asian Tour winner Gaganjeet Bhullar, the 8-time Asian Tour and 3-time European Tour winner, Arjun Atwal, Ajeetesh Sandhu, the winner in Taiwan and Khalin Joshi, the only one of the eight waiting for is break-through win.
