Jamal Hossain fires steady 69 to maintain Players C’ship lead

By Rahul Banerji

Overnight leader Jamal Hossain of Bangladesh held on to his two-shot lead with a steady three-under 69 in round three of the Players Championship at Chandigarh Golf Club on Friday.

Dhaka’s Jamal (70-67-69), overnight leader by two shots, was thus well-placed for a shot at his fourth PGTI title at the Rs 1 crore event on 10-under 206, the PGTI said.

Faridabad’s Karan Pratap Singh (70-70-68), runner-up in Noida last week, posted the day’s best of 68 to move up places to second on eight-under 208.

The 38-year-old Jamal, who won his last PGTI event in 2019, was off to a sizzling start with three birdies on the first five holes where he came up with some brilliant chips including one from from the bunker on the fifth.

Jamal dropped an 18-footer for his fourth birdie on 12. With fewer regulations and the putter going cold, he had a dry spell till the end including a bogey and pars on the rest.

Runner-up at last year’s Tata Steel PGTI Players Championship, Jamal said, “Made a great start that finally helped me hold on to my advantage.

“I came up with some tremendous wedge shots and an accurate tee shot on the opening stretch. But I lost momentum somewhere in the middle with a couple of near misses for birdies.

Narrow misses

“Struck it well on the back nine but the putts didn’t fall for me there.

“In the final round, my approach will be to play percentage golf as I’ll look to find fairways and make regulations.

“If the birdies don’t come my way, the plan will be to make as many pars as possible and let the others try to catch up with me.”

Karan Pratap, T6 overnight three off the lead, made seven birdies and three bogeys for his 68 that moved him into contention on Friday.

He fired his approach within a couple of feet of the pin on 18 to end the day with a tap-in birdie.

Chandigarh’s Harendra Gupta (70) kept local hopes alive as he closed in tied third place on seven-under 209 along with Delhi’s Kapil Kumar (69) and Greater Noida’s Arjun Sharma (70).

Jairaj Singh Sandhu (68) and Angad Cheema (71) were also inside the top 10.

While southpaw Jairaj matched the day’s best of 68 to be tied sixth on six-under 210, Angad was in tied eighth place at five-under 211.

Faridabad’s Abhinav Lohan was the third player to shoot a 68, the day’s lowest, on Friday. He too was tied for eighth.

Round 3 leaderboard

206: Jamal Hossain (70-67-69)

208: Karan Pratap Singh (70-70-68)

209: Kapil Kumar (72-68-69), Harendra Gupta (69-70-70), Arjun Sharma (71-68-70)

Also read: Jamal Hossain seizes day two lead with a 67 at Chandigarh