Rahil Gangjee of Bangalore recovered from a second-round dip to regain the initiative at the Haryana Open in Panchkula on Saturday with 18 holes to go. Image courtesy PGTI.
By Rahul Banerji
Day one leader Rahil Gangjee regained the initiative with one round of the Rs 1 crore Haryana Open to go with a solid 5 under par 67 at Panchkula Golf Club on Saturday.
It took the Bangalore-based Gangjee’s total to 15 under 201, a stroke ahead of Ahmedabad’s Varun Parikh, the PGTI said.
Parikh, who too had a great start to the week like Gangjee but slipped in round two, bounced back with a 67 on Saturday to total 14 under 202 on the par-72 7,179-yard PGC track.
Tata Steel PGTI Ranking leader Veer Ahlawat of Gurgaon carded a 67 to hold a share of third place on 12 under 204 alongside Pune’s Rohan Dhole Patil (67) and Chandigarh’s Akshay Sharma (70).
Form man Angad Cheema (71) was the other Chandigarh-based player in the top-10 in tied sixth place on 11 under 205 along with Dhruv Sheoran and Sachin Baisoya.
Overnight leader Pukhraj Singh Gill (74) of Ludhiana dropped to tied ninth place at 10 under 206.
Watch live coverage at https://youtube.com/live/pqHI3Irz4dU?feature=share
Gangjee (63-71-67) overnight tied for third two strokes off the lead, had a mixed front nine with three birdies largely thanks to excellent 3-wood shots and dropped two shots from the rough.
Gangjee, a winner of eight titles including two on the Asian Development Tour this year, picked up pace on the back nine with four birdies including two conversions from between 10 and 18 feet.
The 46-year-old, who originally hails from Kolkata, capitalised on all the four par-5s by scoring birdies on each of them.
“While my first round was incredible, I couldn’t follow that up with a great second round,” Gangjee said later.
Good balance
“But today’s effort gave a glimpse of both my previous rounds. It was a more realistic day for me. However, I’m glad that it helped me bounce back into contention.
“The positive for me is that I feel it’s much easier to handle the emotions after a mixed day rather than when you have an extraordinary day and the expectations the following day are much higher.
“I’ll just look to stay in the present in the final round.”
Parikh (64-71-67), who was overnight tied eighth three shots behind Gill, got off to a great start with four birdies on the first five holes including a chip-in on the fourth for the early lead.
A PGTI winner in 2022, Parikh then played some outstanding wedge shots for his three birdies on the back nine that came in exchange for two bogeys.
He left himself a two-footer for birdie on hole 16 and made his second chip-in of the day for par on 18.
“I was quite calm today. I was not thinking about the score but instead just following my process and enjoying myself out there. Hopefully, I can repeat the same in the final round,” Parikh said.
Defending champion Jairaj Singh Sandhu of Chandigarh was tied for 26th on 4 under 212.
Also read: Gill fires day’s best to storm into Haryana Open halfway lead
Discover more from Tee Time Tales
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.