By Rahul Banerji
Rashid Khan (34-35-68) and Kshitij Naveed Kaul (33-35-69) took the joint lead in the penultimate round of the Ahmedabad Open at the Glade One Golf Resort & Club on Friday.
The two golfers — one based in Noida and the other in Delhi — were seven-under 137 at the Rs 1 crore event, the final one scheduled before the summer break, the PGTI said
Two-time Asian Tour winner Rashid had a four-under 68 to jump six places from overnight tied seventh, while three-time PGTI winner Kaul shot a 69 to gain one spot on the leaderboard.
Bangladesh’s in-form Jamal Hossain (69) was a shot in third place while 18-year-old rookie Shaurya Binu (71) of Bangalore and Noida’s Amardeep Malik (71) were for fourth on five-under 139.
Gurgaon’s Veer Ahlawat hit the day’s best of 67 for tied sixth place on four-under 140.
The first two rounds of the event comprised nine holes each with the final two rounds being played over 36 holes.
The nine-hole Glade One course was played twice in round three with different pin positions.
Rashid – runner-up at the DGC Open last month – made the most of the par-5s with birdies on holes two, 11 and 14.
Long putts
The 32-year-old also sank long birdie putts on eight and 12, the latter being a 30-footer. Khan, having adjusted well to the green speed on Friday, dropped only one shot on the day.
Rashid said, “I gave myself a lot more chances from the fairways today as compared to the first two rounds. I gauged the greens better.
“The downhill putts would be tricky so the game plan was to try and land the ball short of the pins and not go over.
“My game has been trending well. I’ve just been working on a few things that I feel are slowly falling into place.”
Kaul’s pin-point approach shots and good putting form saw him accumulate five birdies in exchange for three bogeys.
The 22-year-old made three birdies on the front nine with putts from 10 to 20 feet. The highlight of his back nine was the approach on 15 that landed four feet from the flag.
Overnight leader Shamim Khan of Delhi dropped down to tied eighth on three-under 141 after a third round of 74.
Among the Ahmedabad professionals, Varun Parikh was tied 16th on one-under 143 and Anshul Patel was T26 on one-over 145, alongside Noida-based 15-year-old amateur Aarav D. Shah.
Round 3 leaderboard
137: Rashid Khan (34-35-68); Kshitij Naveed Kaul (33-35-69)
138: Jamal Hossain (33-36-69)
139: Shaurya Binu (34-34-71); Amardeep Malik (36-32-71)
140: Veer Ahlawat (36-37-67); Kapil Kumar (36-36-68)
Also read: Shamim Khan holds on to Glade One lead with dogged display
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