Cormac

Sharvin

The 28-year-old, in his second season on the European Tour, shot 73-71 last week to miss out on weekend action for the second straight week following a missed cut at the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open. He did make four cuts in his first five starts of the season, however, with his best finish being a T-21 at the Saudi International in February. Last season, Sharvin went 10-for-20 in his first full season, with his best result coming at the English Championship where he actually held the first-round lead after shooting an 8-under 63. He faded with rounds of 70-69-69 to place T-19. Sharvin graduated to the Euro Tour following a solid 2019 Challenge Tour season that included eight top 10s and six top 5s.

The 27-year-old is all set for his first attempt at playing the European Tour and the one thing he won’t be lacking for is advice. Not only are the Irish known for providing back-up to their own, he also has his uncle on tour – he caddies for Shane Lowry. After two seasons of struggle on the Challenge Tour (both times outside the top 60) he improved greatly last season, claiming a second, a third and another six top tens on his way to 11th in the rankings. He is 4-for-10 in his rare European Tour starts, but two of those weekends were last season and both were top 20s. He was T17 in the Kenyan Open and T15 at the Irish Open. He arrives on a run of 16-for-18.

The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland took his place in the field after a sponsor’s invite and made the most of it on day one to end the round in T5, just three shots behind leader Peter Uihlein. It wasn’t all plain sailing for the youngster as he bogeyed the par-5 3rd hole and later racked up a double bogey-7 at the 15th. But he sprinkled seven birdies on his card thanks mainly to a hot putter. We shouldn’t be too surprised by Sharvin relishing the big time given that he went unbeaten when Great Britain and Ireland beat the USA 16½-9½ in the Walker Cup at Royal Lytham & St Annes last year.