Sports News | Gandas Takes Big Step Towards Title Defence
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Leader Manu Gandas took a big step towards his title defence in the Telangana Golconda Masters, carding the third day's best score of five-under 65 for an aggregate of 22-under 188 here.
Hyderabad, Nov 11 (PTI) Leader Manu Gandas took a big step towards his title defence in the Telangana Golconda Masters, carding the third day's best score of five-under 65 for an aggregate of 22-under 188 here.
The effort put the player from Gurugram six strokes clear at the top at the Hyderabad Golf Association (HGA) course.
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Chandigarh's Yuvraj Singh Sandhu too posted a 65 to move up two spots to second position at 16-under 194 at the Rs. 40 lakh event.
Manu and Yuvraj, who are in a tough fight in the PGTI Order of Merit race with three and four wins in the season respectively, look set for yet another showdown on Saturday at the HGA, which is getting chillier in the morning and blustery by the day.
Manu (63-60-65), currently third in the PGTI Order of Merit, just one spot behind Yuvraj, extended his impressive overnight lead by one shot as he struck six birdies and a bogey.
The 26-year-old Manu, who shot a course record 60 in round two, drove the par-4 second green to set up an early birdie but then had a quiet front-nine as he dropped his first bogey of the tournament on the seventh and made pars on the rest of the holes.
Manu's round took off on the back-nine where he claimed five birdies including two tap-ins and a 12-footer on the 17th. He enjoyed a good day with the driver and the putter.
Yuvraj (64-65-65), who at one point had narrowed the gap with Manu to just one stroke, enjoyed a good ball-striking day despite enduring a cold putter.
Yuvraj sank five birdies on his first 10 holes including a long conversion on the seventh before incurring a penalty on the 15th where his ball was lost and resulted in a double-bogey.
Syed Saqib Ahmed (67) of Bengaluru was placed third at 13-under 197 while another Bengalurean Abhishek Jha (67) and the Chanidgarh duo of Jairaj Singh Sandhu (69) and Angad Cheema (72) were joint fourth at 10-under 200.
Hyderabad-based amateur Milind Soni, who was in the top-3 for the first two days, slipped to tied ninth at seven-under 203 after returning a 75 on Friday. Hyderabad professional Mohd Azhar (67) shared the ninth spot with Soni.
Hardik Chawda (70), another professional from Hyderabad, was placed tied 11th at six-under 204.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)