Shubhankar, Bhullar, Chawrasia face an uphill task at Italian Open

Indian trio of Shubhankar Sharma, Gaganjeet Bhullar and SSP Chawrasia will look to turn around their fortunes when they tee off at the Italian Open golf tournament here on Thursday.

While Shubhankar missed the cut at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Bhullar missed the weekend action at Mutuactivos Open de Espaa last week and both will be itching to bounce back this week.

Bhullar has been struggling to find form off-late with a T-53 finish at the Scandinavian Invitation being his best performance amongst the last five tournaments.

Chawrasia's best finish in the last five tournaments came at last week's Mutuactivos Open de Espaa where he signed off at T-55, after having missed the cut in the previous four European Tour events.

The Indian trioka thus will look to put their best foot forward at the picturesque Olgiata Golf Course, which last hosted this event in 2002 when Ian Poulter took the title.

Fifth of the Eight Rolex Series events and a part of the Race to Dubai, the tournament will see some of the best in the business, including one of the all-time Italian greats Francesco Molinari in action who won the competition twice back in 2006 and 2016 respectively.

Molinari, who is currently ranked 11th in the world, hasn't had the best of season as his best finish came at The Masters in April earlier this year where he ended at T-5.

The major players to look out for will also include the Irishman Shane Lowry, who recently won the 148th Open Championship and is currently ranked second in Race to Dubai.

Scottish Open Champion Bernd Wiesberger and Englishman Danny Willett, winner of the BMW PGA Championship, will also be vying for the USD 7,000,000 prize purse.