Shubhankar Sharma is back for the weekend at the Nexo Championship after a second-round hole-in-one helped him finish on one-over 145 and secure a place inside the cut line. The Indian golfer, who opened with 73 and then shot 72, ended a run of four missed cuts and will play the final 36 holes.
The ace came at the sixth hole in his second round, a rare boost in a week when the wind made scoring difficult in Scotland. With the field stretched by testing conditions, Sharma stood tied 22 after 36 holes at Trump International Golf Links, a position that gives him something he has lacked lately on the DP World Tour: another two rounds to work with.
That matters more because Yuvraj Sandhu could not follow him through. Sandhu signed for 75 and 79 and missed the cut, turning the Indian interest in the event into a one-man weekend after two rounds. Sharma’s scorecard was steady enough to survive, but the hole-in-one gave it the lift it needed and turned a middling start into a timely rescue.
Matthew Southgate led after two rounds on four-under after rounds of 70 and 70, while Matthew Jordan and Shaun Norris both sat three-under after 69s. Scott Jamieson and Marcus Kinhult were also tied for second, leaving Sharma well behind the leaders but still alive in a tournament where every shot has been made harder by the weather. The weekend now offers him a chance to build on the kind of break that can reset a week, and maybe a stretch of results, in a hurry.
