Shubankar Sharma finishes tied 7th at Singapore Classic

Shubhankar Sharma briefly shared the lead on the back nine of the final day, but the Indian dropped two crucial shots and finished tied-seventh at the Porsche Singapore Classic here on Sunday.

Sharma, who has two wins on the DP World Tour, the second of which came in 2018, shot rounds of 68-669-68-71 for a 12-under total and ended five behind the eventual winner, Jesper Svensson, who beat Kiradech Aphibarnrat on the third play-off hole.

Svensson and Kiradech were tied at 17-under as the former birdied his two closing holes and the latter eagled the 18th after running up three birdies in a row from 14th to the 16th.

For Sharma, who now travels to his home event, the Hero Indian Open next week, it was his first top-10 of 2024.

Sharma, starting the day 11-under, was going great guns and got to 14-under with birdies on the third, seventh and eighth.

A dropped shot on the ninth took away some momentum and then he had bogeys on the 12th and the 17th with one birdie in between on the 13th.

Svensson matched the course record with a closing 63 at Laguna National Golf Resort Club to get to 17 under but needed extra holes to edge out Kiradech, who had a stunning finish for a 64.

Both men made birdie on the first trip up the last and then exchanged a pair of pars before Aphibarnrat went over the back and made a bogey, leaving Svensson two putts for par and his maiden DPWT victory.

The 28-year-old made his breakthrough last year with his victory at the B-NL Challenge Trophy on the European Challenge Tour before securing playing privileges via the Road to Mallorca Rankings.

He has already finished runner-up twice on the 2024 Race to Dubai – at the Investec South African Open Championship and the Bahrain Championship – and has now entered the winner’s circle on only his 14th appearance.