Shubhankar Sharma has fixed his sights on reaching the season ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai after seeing a couple of different parts of his game fall into place on the first two days of the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Open.
The Indian has struggled so far this season, with his best result coming at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open earlier in the month, where he finished in a share of 26th.
But the two time European Tour champion has noticed an improvement in his iron play in recent weeks, and now his putting seems to have turned a corner too after two brilliant rounds on the greens at the stunning Aphrodite Hills Resort.
Sharma, who sits 151st on the Race to Dubai, followed up Thursday's flawless 67 with a 66 which started with two bogeys but then featured an eagle and five birdies to see him head into the weekend on nine under par.
After his second round Sharma, who started at 6.55am local time, said: "It was a tough start to the year. It was very tough in the beginning, I was really struggling to find my rhythm.
"My iron play wasn’t where I wanted it to be, which is the strongest part of my game. Thankfully the last few weeks it’s starting to come around.
"I’ve been struggling with my putting, but this week it has been decent. I’ve made a lot of these four or five footers I've been missing the past few weeks. I’m really happy I’m finally turning a corner, hopefully I’ll have some good finishes now and try and make it to Dubai.
"I think (the two bogeys at the start) actually made me focus. I was joking with my friend who is on the bag that it opened my eyes – I had an early tee off today and was a little sleepy on the first two holes.
"The first wasn’t an unforced error. I had a great shot which landed two feet from the pin, it rolled off the green and I missed the up and down from there.
"I made a stupid bogey on the second, but after the second I told my friend I’m playing too well to let this put me down.
"We set a target for ourselves, we wanted to finish ten under for the first two days. We just came up one shy, but that helped me refocus and put things into perspective, telling myself I’m making birdies and I just need to do that.
"As professional golfers this is what you strive for, you want to be in the mix going into the weekend.
"It’s been a while since that has happened. I felt that at the Scottish I was quite close, I was 13th after two days. My game was coming around. The Scottish wasn’t too many weeks back.
"I’m really happy to be in this position and I'm looking forward to the weekend."
