By Rahul Banerji
Gurgaon golferManu Gandas maintained his overnight five-shot advantage with a 3-under par 64 in round three of the Golconda Masters Telangana Open at the Hyderabad Golf Association course on Saturday.
Gandas (64-58-64), looking for his maiden win, was 20-under 186 after three days, the Professional Golf Tour of India said.
One of the most consistent performers this season, the 25-year-old had an eagle and three birdies against two bogeys in the penultimate round.
Bangalore’s Chikkarangappa S. (67-63-61), the 2019 champion, shot a six-under 61 to rise climb three places into tied second place on 15-under 191.
The others alongside Chikka were Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (67-62-62) and Noida’s Amardeep Malik (66-61-64), who fired third round scores of 5-under 62 and 3-under 64 respectively.
Heavy rain over the past two days resulted in waterlogging in parts of the course. As a result, hole no. 3 was reduced from Par-4 to Par-3, no. 6 from Par-5 to Par-3 and 18 from Par-4 to Par-3.
Par for the course in round 3, therefore, was 67 instead of the regular 71.
Solid display
Gandas, currently eighth in the PGTI Order of Merit with five top-10s so far this season, continued his solid run at Hyderabad by leading the field for the third day in succession.
The 25-year-old, who enjoyed a substantial five-shot lead at the halfway stage, had a sedate front nine on Saturday missing a few short birdie putts and also bogeyed the seventh after finding the water hazard.
His only bright spot on the front nine was an up and down from the bunker for par on 6.
Still comfortably ahead of the field, Gandas got going on the back nine to reassert his dominance.
He birdied 10 and 11 thanks to excellent shots off the tee. After a good chip-putt for birdie on 14, the DLF Golf & Country Club player came up with another outstanding tee shot on the par-4 15th where he drove the green and converted a seven-footer for eagle.
Gandas finally dropped another shot on 17 where he found the water hazard for the second time in the round. However, he managed to stay the top contender for the title with his healthy five-shot lead.
‘Below expectations
“It was a decent round but not up to my expectations as I missed a lot of short birdie putts,” Gandas said later.
“However, considering the match situation, three-under was a more than handy score as it kept me ahead of the rest which in turn means less pressure in the final round.
“But I’m not taking anything for granted and will take it one shot at a time and treat the last round like any other round.
“My tee shots have been excellent this week, especially my driver and 3-wood. But I really need to improve on my iron-play and putting.
“This season has been my best so that gives me a lot of confidence going ahead.”
Chikkarangappa’s round featured an eagle, five birdies and a bogey and he made a late surge with a six-under run on the back nine.
Yuvraj Singh Sandhu’s 62 included six birdies and a bogey and kept him in the mix.
Amardeep Malik hung on to T2 with Chikka and Sandhu, making five birdies and two bogeys in his round of 64.
Panchkula’s Angad Cheema shot the day’s lowest score of seven-under 60 that lifted him 31 spots to tied 14th at seven-under 199. He had an error-free day.
Ace specialist
Local lad Mohd Azhar from the Vooty Golf County near Hyderabad struck a hole-in-one on the seventh hole during his third round of two-under 65.
He too was placed tied 14th at 199. Azhar has now fired aces in successive events on the PGTI having hot one at the last event in March.
PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar (63) of Chandigarh was in tied fifth place at 12-under 194 along with Patna’s Aman Raj (62) and Kolkata’s Viraj Madappa (62).
Chandigarh’s Harendra Gupta, the winner of the inaugural edition in 2015, was tied 29th at three-under 203.
The two amateur golfers from Hyderabad, Milind Soni (2-under 204) and Tej Gangavarapu (3-over 209) were T33 and T49 respectively.
Also read: Gandas sizzles with a 10-under round at Telangana Open
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