Kullar maintains lead in round three of Final Qualifying Stage

By Rahul Banerji

Deepinder Singh Kullar maintained a two-shot lead in round three of the PGTI’s Final Qualifying Stage for the 2020 season at the Kensville Golf & Country Club near Ahmedabad on Thursday.

The 38-year-old (71-73-74), overnight leader by two shots, continued at the top for a second day in succession after carding a 2-over-74 on Thursday that moved his total to 2-over-218.

Six golfers were in tied second place on 4-over-220 including Delhi’s Siddharth Semwal (73), Arjun Singh (73) and Manav Jaini (74), Chandigarh’s Amrit Lal (73), Lucknow’s Ashish Kumar Gupta (74) and Gurgaon-based amateur Kartik Sharma (74).

Kullar, also of Gurgaon, produced two birdies and four bogeys en route to his 74 on the windiest day of the week so far. Kullar had a decent start as he was one-under through the front-nine but then conceded three bogeys on the back-nine.

Costly errors

The DLF Golf and Country Club-based Kullar said, “I hit it well on the front nine but on the back nine some poor driving cost me bogeys. I hooked it left on the 11^th and found the hazard on the 15^th.

“However, I managed things well in order to stay ahead on a very tough day for scoring. If I can finish on top this week, it’ll be a huge confidence-booster for me ahead of the 2020 season.”

Tour senior Vijay Kumar of Lucknow, the joint leader after round two, shot an 80 in round three to drop to tied 20^th on 8-over-224.

At the end of round four on Thursday, the top 38 players will earn full cards for the 2020 Tata Steel PGTI season.

Also read: Gulfam tops PGTI Pre Qualifying III as 28 enter Final Stage