Sports News | Karandeep Raises Title Hopes with a Determined 67, Stretches Lead to Four Shots
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Karandeep Kochhar raised hopes of a second title after producing a bogey-free five-under-67 as he took an imposing four-shot lead in round three of the TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship here on Wednesday.
Chandigarh, Nov 11 (PTI) Karandeep Kochhar raised hopes of a second title after producing a bogey-free five-under-67 as he took an imposing four-shot lead in round three of the TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship here on Wednesday.
Karandeep's sublime effort moved his total to 15-under-201 ahead of the final round.
Akshay Sharma, who was last week's winner, shot a 68 to share second position along with Veer Ahlawat (68) and Yashas Chandra (69) at 11-under-205.
Karandeep (66-68-67), whose only win on the PGTI came in 2016 while he was still an amateur, was off to a flying start as he birdied the first two holes. He followed it up with two exceptional par saves by recovering from the bunker on the sixth and from the trees on the ninth.
Karandeep made further inroads on the back-nine. He sank birdie putts from a range of 12 to 25 feet on the 10th, 12th and 18th.
"I wasn't too comfortable with my hitting today but my chipping and putting saved the day for me. It was my fourth bogey-free round since the start of last week's event.
"So I've consistently kept the errors out and that gives me a lot of confidence going into the final round," Karandeep said.
Akshay (69-68-68) gained two positions to be tied second. He produced an eagle, six birdies and four bogeys.
Veer (66-71-68) also moved up two places from his overnight tied fourth. He struggled with his putting till the sixth hole making a birdie and bogey each. Thereafter, he holed putts from a range of 10 to 20 feet to pick up four birdies.
Yashas (68-68-69) continued in his overnight tied second place after a 69 which included five birdies and two bogeys. He struggled to find the fairways but his short-game came to his rescue. His round was highlighted by a 25-feet conversion on the fifth.
Delhi's Shamim Khan (68), Arjun Prasad (70) and Amrit Lal (68) were in tied fifth place with identical totals of 10-under-206. While Viraj Madappa fired the day's best 66 to be tied eighth along with Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (70) at eight-under-208.
Khalin Joshi (67) was tied 10th at seven-under-209 while the Chandigarh duo of Ajeetesh Sandhu (69) and Aadil Bedi (73) were in tied 15th place at five-under-211.
Defending champion Rashid Khan (72) and PGTI Order of Merit leader Udayan Mane (75) of Pune were both placed tied 22nd at three-under-213.
(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)