Chacarra edges ahead late on tough day at Hero Indian Open

Eugenio Chacarra of Spain after playing his second shot on the opening hole on day three of the Hero Indian Open in Gurgaon on Saturday. Image courtesy Getty Images.

By Rahul Banerji

‘Brutal course’ was the popular verdict on day three of the $2.25 million Hero Indian Open at the DLF Golf and Country Club on Saturday which ended with Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra taking a one-shot lead into Title Sunday in Gurgaon.

The overnight joint leader came through with damage minimised on a day the event total travelled backwards, Chacarra ended in the lead on 3 under par 213 against a 4 under total on Friday.

Chacarra carded a 2 over par 73 to edge into a one-shot lead with defending champion Keita Nakajima of Japan and South Africa’s Brandon Stone sharing second place on 2 under 214.

Ajeetesh Sandhu was best placed Indian golfer in the 68-strong surviving field at tied 15^th on 4 over 220 while last year’s joint runner-up Veer Ahlawat shared 18^th place on 5 over 221.

Chacarra (70-70-73) dropped two shots on the front nine and picked up a crucial birdie on the same hole that Nakajima would drop the first of his two bogeys to concede the lead.

At close, Nakajima (74-766-74) was in shared second place along with South African Brandon Stone (70-73-71), who was one of just three players to bring in sub-par cards on the day.

Stone had former PGA Tour player Troy Merrit of the US and fellow South African Casey Jarvis for company on 1 under 71. With the final 18 holes to go, just five in the field of 68 are still on sub-par totals.

Changing course

Sandhu (69-77-74) actually improved on his overnight 25^th place by 10 spots to a share of 15^th despite retuning a 2 over 74 on Saturday. Ahlawat too was 2 over on the day to go with earlier cards of 70 and 77, almost replicating Sandhu’s scores.

Stone closed out his day with his fourth birdie against three bogeys and later said it had been a brutal experience out on the course.

“It was unbelievable golf, if I’m honest. It sounds greedy, but I felt like I actually played somewhat better than that. I felt like I left a few birdie putts out there, but it’s something else out there.

“It’s just brutal. If you hit a shot that’s subpar by our standards, there’s no hope for it being okay. You just know it’s not.

“It just feels like you’re constantly on high alert because you’ll have a four or five foot putt and you’re so busy thinking about the next one, you’re actually just lagging them down there. But to shoot one under today is something I’m very proud of.”

“It was windy. It was probably the most windy day we had out there so I knew I needed to have a lot of patience today,” Chacarra said later. “I think I played great. My ball-striking was incredible like it’s been all week, so that was nice.

Playing tough

“I’m very pleased with this score, I think it was playing tough. This course, we know what it is, one bad swing and you can get a big number. “So I’m pleased with it but it’s time to reset, talk to my team and see what we can do better for tomorrow.”

Added Nakajima, “I made it a no-stress day. I made 16 pars and that’s good for this golf course. My caddy told me to be patient before every shot. That was great. This is the toughest golf course I’ve played this year. So my thinking was to be stress-free, just hold the line.”

England’s Matthew Jordan (69-73-73), who shared fourth place on 1 under 215 said he had eased himself into the round despite the testing course and conditions.

“Yeah, roller coaster at the end. I kind of felt a bit uncomfortable to start out with and it was hard and you’re kind of grinding away. But as the round kind of progressed, I felt more and more comfortable and I felt better and better and started to play really nicely.

“And then typical of golf, as soon as you start to feel great it throws a curveball at you so obviously disappointed with what happened on 17 (where he had a double-bogey 6), but then to back it up with birdie on 18 was really pleasing to be honest.”

Gaganjeet Bhullar was undone with a triple-bogey 8 on the Par-5 18^th to go with three dropped shots earlier that gave him a share of 33^rd place on 7 over 223 while recent PGTI winner Shaurya Bhattacharya was a shot behind in T39 on an 8 over total.

Also read: Battle looms as Nakajima, Chacarra share Hero Indian Open lead