Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma, who engrossed spectator attention at last year’s Magical Kenya Open, will be back next month to grace the fabled event for the second year running.
The star Asian pro, who played in his home event (Hero Indian Open) is among the 156 players listed for Kenya’s DP World Tour (formally European Tour) round slated for the Par 71` Muthaiga Golf Club course from March 9-12.
Sharma became the youngest Indian to win on the European Tour - by more than six years - when he claimed the tri-sanctioned Joburg Open title in December 2017 as a 21-year-old.
At Muthaiga last year, Sharma was the star attraction at halfway stage when he made his first move to the top of the leaderboard where 66 players survived the second round axe.
He nevertheless ended his Kenyan campaign on T13 with a gross total of 8 under par 276. He will be back to chase the elusive title in Kenya.
Sharma has had quite an eventful professional career.
Turning professional in 2013, Sharma played on the Asian Development Tour in 2014. He also finished fourth in the Panasonic Open India, a 2014 Asian Tour event.
From 2015 to 2017, Sharma played primarily on the Asian Tour.
Sharma started 2017 finishing fourth in the Bashundhara Bangladesh Open and in the top-10 in the Maybank Championship, an event co-sanctioned with the European Tour.
He'll be among the star attractions of the Kenya Open, which was first held in 1967.
Last year, Chinese Ashun Wu won the the event at the Muthaiga Golf Club.
A total of 156 players across the world will contest the 2023 edition of the MKO.
And about 15000 spectators are expected to grace the high profile leg of the DP World Tour (formerly European) Tour.
The event is expected to reach 500 million households across the world.
The Government has a plan to package both Sports and Tourism through the yet to be launched Sports Safari Tour, which will be a very huge initiative, according to Sports CS Ababu Namwamba
