By Rahul Banerji
Kapurthala’s Gaganjeet Bhullar struck a masterly 3-under 68 to put himself within striking distance of the leaders at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in Doha on Friday.
Bhullar, who had opened with a 4-under 67 on day one and hit a bump with a 73 on Friday recovered despite testing conditions to sit two shots behind leader Darren Fitchard of South Africa going into the final day.
The 32-year-old shared the day’s best round despite high winds and swirling sand on Saturday to climb 28 places on the leader-board.
He is one behind England’s Jack Senior.
It gives Bhullar a shot at a second European Tour title after his 2018 Fiji International win.
Shubhankar Sharma also made the cut and would have been higher up on the leader-board but for a triple bogey that took his total to 4-over 75 on the day.
It added to his first two days cards of 68 and 71, and a share of 28th place.
Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia, the third Indian in the field, did not make the cut.
Contrasting fortunes
On Saturday, Bhullar had four birdies against one dropped shot, a contrast to day two when he dropped three shots against one birdie.
Fitchard won the Qatar Masters back in 2003 and will want to repeat the feat at the Education City Golf Club.
The South African has four other victories in his 398 Tour appearances before this week, but conditions were similar to those that prevailed at Doha Golf Club where Fichardt lifted the trophy 18 years ago, europeantour.com said.
Bhullar’s 68 put him a shot clear of Welshman Jamie Donaldson, Dane Joachim B. Hansen and Frenchman Antoine Rozner, who also had a 68 on the day.
The difficulty of the conditions over days two and three was shown with the lead having not moved from seven under after day one, europeantour.com said.
The struggles for the final groups just made Bhullar’s 68 – which matched the lowest round of the day – all the more remarkable.
Bhullar made his move up the leaderboard with birdies on the third, fifth and sixth, dropping a shot on the 12th and then picking it back up on the 16th.
Late last year, Bhullar picked up his 10th domestic title at the PGTI Tata Steel Tour Championship in Jamshedpur.
Also read: Gaganjeet Bhullar brings it home in Tour C’ship finale
Discover more from Tee Time Tales
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.