By Rahul Banerji
Om Prakash Chouhan made the most of Moving Day with a sublime 8-under-64 to join Manu Gandas at the top of the pack on day three of the Glade One Masters in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
The Mhow golfer, who missed out just a week ago at the nearby Kalhaar course looked determined to make amends here, carding an eagle and seven birdies against one dropped shot on the day.
DLF’s Gandas, who for much of the day looked secure in the lead before he was caught by Chouhan, shot a determined 5-under-67 at the Rs 30 lakh event at the Glade One Golf Resort.
Angad Cheema of Panchkula fired a brilliant 7-under-65 to lie third on 9-under-135, the PGTI said.
Bangalaore’s Chikkarangappa S., winner at Kalhaar last week, carded a 67 for tied fourth on 6-under-138 along with Yuvraj Singh Sandhu of Chandigarh.
Sandhu slipped two places form his overnight second after returning a level par 72 on Thursday.
Strong comeback
Chouhan (35-33-64), who led for three days at Kalhaar before finally finishing third, rebounded thanks to a standout performance on Thursday.
He hit his sand wedge to perfection on day three, landing the ball to within five feet on five occasions to set up birdies.
OP, overnight tied third and three off the lead, also had two birdie conversions from 10 to 15 feet and a lone bogey.
The highlight of his round though was an eagle-two on 17 where he holed out from the fairway bunker, about 115 yards.
Chouhan said later, “I was hitting my wedges really well from the start but on the back nine my putting also began to click.
“The eagle was special as I read the yardage perfectly and executed the shot as I had planned.
“Looking ahead, I feel a four or five under in the final round would give me a really good chance.
“It will be important to reassess the situation at the turn. If it stays calm like today and there is no wind, I think I have a good chance of returning a four or five under.
Making up
“I’m keen to make up for last week when I stumbled in the final round.”
Gandas (35-30-67), overnight leader by one, mixed six birdies with a bogey on the day,
The 24-year-old made three long birdie conversions from 10 to 25 feet. He was 5-under through 14 holes but couldn’t make further gains.
Gandas said, “I kept the momentum going today and didn’t really make any errors besides one three-putt for bogey on 10.
“It’s now necessary to just repeat the process that I have in place during the last round.”
Cheema had eight birdies and a bogey, holing some long putts at the start of his round and that earned him four straight birdies to get going.
He was also staring at a 64 had it not been for his three-putt bogey on the closing hole.
Delhi’s Rashid Khan and rookie Harshjeet Singh Sethie posted 66s for tied sixth on 5-under-139 along with PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar (67), M. Dharma (68) and Veer Ahlawat (69).
Pune-based Udayan Mane, India’s highest ranked golfer in the world, shot a 75 to be tied 41st on 4-over-148.
Of the three Ahmedabad-based professionals, Shravan Desai and Jay Pandya were T46 on 6-over-150 and Anshul Patel was 56th on 11-over-155.
Also read: Gandas fires 6-under-30 for halfway lead at Glade One Masters
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