By Rahul Banerji
Defending champion Manu Gandas took a big step towards his title defence of the Telangana Golconda Masters, opening up a six-shot lead on day three in Hyderabad.
The Gurgaon golfer followed his power-packed 10-under par card of day two with a five-under 65 to aggregate 22-under 188 at the Hyderabad Golf Association course on Friday.
That put Gandas well clear of Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (65, 16-under 194) at the Rs 40 lakh event powered by Telangana Tourism.
Gandas and Sandhu, who are locked in battle on the PGTI Order of Merit race as well with three and four wins respectively, look set for yet another showdown on Championship Day.
With the Hyderabad weather getting chillier in the morning, adapting to conditions on the blustery course will be important.
Strong run
Gandas (63-60-65), currently third in the PGTI Order of Merit, just one spot behind Yuvraj, extended his impressive overnight lead by one shot with six birdies and a bogey.
The 26-year-old, 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.
Gandas also dropped his first shot 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, making the most of a good day with driver and putter.
Gandas said, “I didn’t give myself as many chances on the front nine but I recovered well in the back half.
“I made some bad calculations but my driving got better as the round progressed today and my putting was also quite consistent. The back nine definitely gives more scoring opportunities as you can reach a few greens there.
“In round four I’m just going to go out there and keep doing what I’ve been doing so far.”
Good day out
Sandhu (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 15 where his ball was lost, resulting in a double bogey.
Sandhu then rallied with two late birdies to negate the double.
Yuvraj said, “I got off to a hot start but the putter let me down today. I felt that I left a lower round out there today after missing plenty of putts inside 10 feet.
“I’ll spend some time practicing my short game today in order to prepare for the last round.”
Syed Saqib Ahmed (67) of Bangalore was third on 13-under 197 and city-mate Abhishek Jha (67) and Chandigarh’s Jairaj Singh Sandhu (69) and Angad Cheema (72) were joint fourth on 10-under 200.
Seventeen-year-old Hyderabad-based amateur Milind Soni, who was in the top three for the first two days, slipped to tied ninth on seven-under 203 after returning a 75 on Friday.
Hyderabad professional Mohd Azhar (67) was alongside Soni while, Hardik Chawda (70), another local professional was T11 on six-under 204.
Also read: Gandas fires course record to drive Golconda Masters title defence
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