Calcutta: Finishing the year on a great note, a part of Shubhankar Sharma's mind already seems to be on The Open, which begins on July 15 next year at Carnoustie.

Presence of big names there will certainly make things mighty difficult for the 21-year-old, who's made a name for himself after winning the Joburg Open earlier this month. But Shubhankar doesn't seem to be overawed with them at all.

Rather, he looks at it as an opportunity to share the stage with the eminent golfers, which includes Tiger Woods - his idol and inspiration - who, Shubhankar hopes, will be fit enough to participate in The Open.

"Tiger Woods is my idol. I pretty much follow him and in India, I follow Jeev (Milkha Singh) and Arjun (Atwal), and obviously SSP (Chowrasia) and Anirban (Lahiri)...

"I'm really looking forward to playing with Woods at The Open. He will play The Open, most probably. He is fit now, so yeah, I'm really looking forward to playing with him," Shubhankar said after his triumph at the McLeod Russel Tour championship, at the RCGC, on Sunday.

"Now obviously, I will be stoked to hitting the balls in the same range as Woods. But again, you can't really be thinking too much of your opponents. You just have to go and perform and I just want to do that.

"I don't know how many chances I will get to play at the highest level, so I want to make the most of it. Besides, it's obviously great to play alongside legends like Woods, who's been an inspiration to me," Shubhankar added.

Shubhankar also made it clear that he's not at all over the moon for having earned himself a British Open berth. "See, I wanted to play a first Major and British Open is my favourite one, so I couldn't have asked for anything more.

"It's come early, but there have been people who played a Major when they were 18 or 19. There have been people who have won a Major at 21. So, I want to look at it from that perspective and not feel big about my feat," Shubhankar said.

There were no second thoughts on 2017 being the best year so far for Shubhankar. "This year I have played really well on the Asian Tour. The win in Johannesburg (Joburg Open) totally changed my schedule for next year.

"I'll be playing all the big events and obviously, the British Open. So, I am really happy with how things went this year and I'll just try and match up with it in the next year as well," he said.

However, Shubhankar isn't thinking too far ahead about what his targets in 2018 will be. "I will take a break for the next 15-20 days. To be precise, I will just go and play... Will see how it comes."