Sharvin emerges from doldrums with career-best finish: "I didn’t know if I would ever see my name on the leaderboard again"

Max Kieffer. Getty Images

Cormac Sharvin believes he can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel after closing with a six-under 66 to clinch a career-best tie for 13th in the DP World Tour’s D+D REAL Czech Masters in Prague.

After 13 successive missed cuts, the Ardglass star felt he made a breakthrough when he made just his second cut of the season at Albatross Golf Resort on Friday thanks to rounds of 71 and 69.

But after following that by making an eagle and seven birdies in a closing 66, he feels like a new man.

“It’s been so long,” said Sharvin (29) who jumps 68 places to 229th in the Race to Dubai and into position to salvage something from the season.

“I’ve really been struggling with my golf. I’ve missed 13 cuts in a row so to be honest I am just happy to be playing the weekend. It felt like it was the first step for me getting to the weekend. Yeah, I just managed to free it up today and hit some really good shots.

“I hit some quality golf shots — a three-wood into 12 to 3 feet where I made eagle and I had it to eight under and I felt really calm.

“The first green I missed was 14 and I had a couple of poor chips on 14 and 15 after missing greens. But I managed to steady the ship and birdie 17. I made a little bit of a mess of the last and made five but I’m just happy that it’s a big huge step in the right direction for me.

“It’s been a huge struggle the last year or so. Just to be up there I didn’t know if I would ever see my name on the leaderboard again and I saw I was second at one stage and just to see that gives me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the year and hopefully I can learn from today more than anything I just build from today and hopefully have a good finish the rest of the year we’ll see where it takes me.”

While no play was possible on Saturday due to torrential rain, he took advantage in the final round and soared as high as second at one stage as he birdied the first, third, fourth and fifth, then followed birdie fours at the ninth and 10th with an eagle three at the 12th where he hit a 261-yard three-wood to three feet to go eight-under for the day.

He would bogey the 14th and 15th and follow a birdie at the 17th with a bogey at the last to finish on 10-under, six shots behind Germany’s Max Kieffer, who stormed through with a 66 to win his maiden title by a shot from Malaysia’s Gavin Green on 16-under.

It was Sharvin’s best finish on tour since he tied for 15th in the 2019 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Lahinch and it’s a finish that comes out of the blue as he’d made just one cut this year and only 13 from his last 44 starts on all tours over the past 24 months.

“I was really struggling with my driver for a huge part of the year but to be honest,  the last few weeks I feel like I’ve seen signs of playing some really good golf in the last three weeks or so, I just haven’t scored great,” Sharvin said. “With the pressure of missing so many cuts maybe that’s getting to be a bit much but the first two rounds I played really nicely and didn’t hole much for four under.

“So it was just nice to see some good golf shots again and just to see that has been great because I’ve been kind of been playing OK in practice and then I’d get into tournaments and hit terrible shots.

“So I’m just seeing the driver really well again and driving at the best I’ve ever driven it and it’s been a long hard process just to get to that stage. But I didn’t know if I would ever get it back to even close to where it was and I feel like now it’s better so I’m just taking advantage of the way I’ve been driving it.”

As for the rest of his season, he’s upbeat now.

“I mean I thought I was dead and gone to be honest at this stage but this gives me some confidence,” he said. “Just the feeling of being under pressure again. It’s been so long so I’ve had those feelings of being contention.

“I didn’t have a chance to win but it’s probably 2019 since I’ve had those feelings so just have those feelings again was really refreshing and really nice for me and hopefully I can build on it and enjoy having played well this week.”

David Carey closed with an eight-over 80 to finish 68th on five-over and move up five spots to 245th in the Race to Dubai.

But victory went to KIeffer, who ended a nine-year wait for his maiden DP World Tour title in his 249th appearance on the DP World Tour, as he carded a six under par 66 to finish one stroke ahead of Green.

Kieffer started the day four strokes behind Green, who led after 36 holes as the tournament was reduced to three rounds due to heavy rain on Saturday.

He made a fast start with six birdies in his first 11 holes and recovered from a bogey on 15 with his seventh gain of the day on the 17th hole as he took the lead for the first time on 16 under.

The 32-year-old had previously finished runner-up on four occasions, losing out in two play-offs, one of which was decided after a marathon nine holes in his rookie season in 2013. Extra holes were on the horizon as Green, who was one under par for the day, was just one stroke back as he played the 18th hole.

The Malaysian stuck his approach shot to ten feet but his birdie putt agonisingly lipped out, handing Kieffer his first victory and his nation’s first DP World Tour title since Marcel Siem won the BMW Masters in 2014.

Green recorded his best finish on the DP World Tour since 2017 as he finished second on 15 under par, while South Africa’s Louis De Jager and Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen, who was runner-up at this event last year, shared third on 14 under.

Max Kieffer: “You’re thinking ‘I want to be ready’, in case he makes birdie you want to be ready. You expect him to make birdie, you don’t want other people to miss putts but when the guy from the TV said ‘you’ve won it’, the feeling was ridiculous. It will need a few days.

“I just love golf. I just love to play golf. Even if I hadn’t won, I’ve still had a great life, I still enjoy playing golf. Now to win, that’s even better. You just have to keep trying. I had a few difficult years where I didn’t play, this year I feel like I’m playing very well. But, deep down, you never know in golf. I’m just so glad and I’m really going to enjoy it.

“To be honest I felt really calm and confident all day. I had a good feeling. I had a great warm up and I was ready to attack today. I thought I’d need at least another birdie because Gavin was at 17 under. I tried to be aggressive on 17. When I saw he was back to 15 and I had a putt for the lead, which I made, then on 18 the nerves kicked in. At the tee shot I was thinking I may not make contact with the ball, but I hit a great shot, then I had a good yardage for the second shot and it was nice to see the full shot in there and I made a nice putt there also.

“It's got to be hard work. Hard work and keep going, always keep grinding. You have good days, bad days, you have to enjoy the good days and on the bad days you dig deep and keep going."