America's Matt Kuchar cruises to victory in Hero Challenge, Shubhankar Sharma eliminated

Edinburgh: America’s Matt Kuchar exhibited remarkable accuracy in finding the Bull’s Eye more than once en route to winning the Hero Challenge golf tournament against the spectacular backdrop of Edinburgh Castle. Playing in front of more than 4,000 highly vocal and enthusiastic spectators, the six stars – Kuchar, Ian Poulter, Charley Hoffman, Shubhankar Sharma, Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Richie Ramsay – thrilled the crowd at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo’s amphitheater in front of the Edinburgh Castle. [caption id=“attachment_4253851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Shubhankar Sharma. Twitter/@asianttourgolf[/caption] Kuchar beat countryman Charley Hoffman in the all-American final as the players teed off from the specially erected platform at a target 80 metres away on the Castle Esplanade. Sharma, grouped alongside Poulter and Cabrera-Bello, was eliminated at the group stage after failing to stop the ball inside the marked circles in any of his five attempts. From the other group, Hoffman and Kuchar came through as local man Ramsay exited. Kuchar gave an indication of things to come when he beat Poulter with the help of the first Bull’s eye of the night in the second semi-final. Earlier, Hoffman accounted for defending Scottish Open champion Cabrera-Bello in the first semi-final. In the final, Kuchar landed the first ball in the outer circle and the second in the Bull’s Eye before giving up his third shot to the host, Vernon Kay for fun, while he took up the microphone. Kuchar, a top draw at the Scottish Open this week and next week’s Open, said “It is just an amazing venue, what a cool backdrop. The amount of fans and the energy that was here tonight just made it really exciting to be part of this event.” “I think there was some luck involved in the Bull’s eyes. I’m surprised it went my way as much as it did. It was the luck of the bounce a little bit but I certainly had the distance and direction looking good. It was awfully nice to end it with a Bulls eye there at the end,” he said. The Hero Challenge was introduced at the British Masters in 2016 and was followed by three editions last year at the British Masters, Scottish Open and DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.