By Rahul Banerji
Karandeep Kochhar grabbed a two-shot lead at 11-under par 205 with a day to go of the Indo-MIM presents Bengaluru Open Golf Championship at the Karnataka Golf Association course on Thursday.
The 20-year-old from Chandigarh, who was a shot off the lead in tied fourth overnight, turned in a steady 3-under 69 to emerge as a prime contender for the title at the Rs. 40 lakh event which is also the penultimate leg of the 2019 Tata Steel PGTI season.
Japan Tour regular Rahil Gangjee (71) and Faridabad-based Abhinav Lohan (70) were tied second on 9-under 207s.
Karandeep (67-69-69), still looking for his first title after turning professional, began with long birdie conversions on the second and fifth holes despite being in trouble with his tee shots both times.
An error in club selection on the sixth saw Karandeep find the water and drop his first shot of the day.
Three-putt bogey
Kochhar, the youngest ever player to win on the PGTI at age 17 years and five months while still an amateur, then picked up two more shots but gave them away with two bogies in three holes, the first a result of a three-putt.
He pulled things back with a strong finish with two more long conversions in the last three holes.
Karandeep, currently seventh in the PGTI Rankings thanks to his four top-10s this season, said, “It was great to end my round with two birdies for the second straight day. In round two, I made birdies on the closing 17th and 18th and today it was the 16th and 18th. So that helps me carry forward the momentum into the next round.
“I’ve been putting really well. I have a good feel of the green speed this week and am stroking my putts nicely. My course management has been great and I’ve scored and scrambled well. I’m also hitting it straight off the tee.
“I’ve made some mistakes in all three rounds but I’ve made more birdies than mistakes. So that has kept me ahead. I made a really good recovery to make bogey on the sixth after finding the water hazard.
“That hole could’ve been worse for me. Now the key in the final round will be to keep the mistakes out,” Karandeep added.
Five up, four down
Gangjee (68-68-71) will be playing with Kochhar for the third day in succession as he found himself in the final day’s lead group after a round that featured five birdies and four bogeys. He moves up two spots from his overnight tied fourth.
The 41-year-old, who has now made Bangalore his home and is a two-time winner on the Asian Tour, drove the green on the par-4 first hole for a birdie.
A bogey on the second was quickly covered with birdies on the fifth and sixth holes. But the gusty winds that blew through the day had an impact on Gangjee’s round as he dropped three more shots against two birdies over his last 11 holes.
“It was an up and down round for me,” Ganjee said later. “The conditions were at the toughest today.
“I’m glad I took my revenge on the sixth hole today with a birdie after making double-bogey on that hole over the last two days. I’m still in a good position and a solid start in round four would be crucial for me.”
Up the order
Lohan’s (70-67-70) third round 70 was punctuated by four birdies and two bogeys and it lifted him four places from his overnight sixth. Lohan has been in fine form recently with a breakthrough win on the PGTI Feeder Tour and also posting T11and T10 finishes at PGTI events in Jaipur and Kolkata.
Lohan said, “The second half of the season has been good for me so far. I finally broke the victory barrier and secured some decent finishes. I fixed some glitches in my game during the mid-season break and that has helped improve my ball-striking in particular. It would be ideal if I could end the year with a couple of more top finishes.”
Round two joint leaders Trishul Chinnappa of Bangalore and Sudhir Sharma of Greater Noida shot rounds of 73 to slip to tied fourth on 8-under-208 along with Lucknow’s Sanjeev Kumar (67).
Eighteen-year-old amateur Akshay Neranjan, playing only his second professional event, was seventh on 7-under-209 and M. Dharma tied eighth on 6-under-210 to make it four local golfers in the top-10 for a second day running.
Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Singh Sandhu matched the tournament’s best round of 65 to close the day in 11th place on 5-under-211, while Delhi’s Kapil Kumar, one of the three second round joint leaders, slipped to tied 12th on 4-under-212 after a round of 77 on Thursday.
Defending champion Anura Rohana of Sri Lanka was also tied 12th.
Bangalore-based Aryan Roopa Anand, recently crowned All India Amateur champion and the second amateur to make the cut, was tied 26th at one-under-215.
Sandhu best-placed at Thailand Masters
Meanwhile, at the Thailand Masters that got under way on the day in Pattaya, Ajeetesh Sandhu was tied 11th in a round that even had him briefly in the lead at 5-under on the Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club’s par-71 Ocean and Mountain course.
Sandhu ended the day on 4-under 67, four shots adrift of day one leader Thomas Detry of Belgium (-8). He is one ahead of the resurgent Jyoti Randhawa, tied for 23rd place with a 3-under round.
Other Indians down the order were Chikkarangappa S. T45 on -2, and Arjun Atwal, Viraj Madappa, Aadil Bedi and two time Indian Open champion S.S.P. Chawrasia all in a share of 67th place on 1-under.
Panasonic Open India 2019 runner-up Shiv Kapur was 1-over, while Jeev Milkha Singh, Rashid Khan and Aman Raj were a further shot behind and Khalin Joshi well down the order.
Also read: Aryan scores historic double at 119th All-India Amateur; Anika shines
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