Dubai, Jan 18 (PTI) Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma on Thursday carded an impressive even par 72 but still was below the leader board atop of which four players built a substantial lead with five-under in the 2024 Hero Dubai Desert Classic here.

Sharma, the lone Indian at this event each year since 2018, had a brilliant start from the tenth.

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He landed an eagle that was set up with a 284-yard drive followed up with a 265-yard approach and he duly sank the 9-footer for eagle.

But after that he had just one more birdie on the first and three bogeys for a day's work of even par 72.

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“I played well but it was not easy with the wind and I missed a couple of putts (including a two-footer), but there is more golf to come,” said Sharma.

For the first half of his opening round, the defending champion, Rory McIlroy, seemed to be in electric form. McIlroy, starting from the 10th, was 4-under through his first nine holes at the Emirates Golf Club.

He then crashed with three bogeys in a row from sixth to the eighth to finish 1-under and way down on the leaderboard.

The lead at 5-under was shared by four players. Two of them, Li Haotong of China, winner here in 2018, and Andy Sullivan of England, who has not won since 2020, are trying to find their way back.

The other two were Cameron Young, World No. 25, but without a win on any Tour and Rasmus Hojgaard, who was out of action for more than two and a half months starting early February last year.

On his 2023 showing, Li admitted it was very disappointing.

“I think I played just as solid as last week (T-14 at Dubai Invitational). I've been working on a lot of stuff during the wintertime and I see some results like this, kind of like slowly paying back now,” he said.

Asked if he felt confident after last week, he added, “Definitely. Especially after last week, good performance, and I can't believe it's six years gone. It's a lot of great memories and hopefully I can continue to do some magic here.”

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)