By Rahul Banerji
Amardeep Malik may well be forgiven if he has been pinching himself over the last couple of days at the Tour Championship currently in progress in Jamshedpur.
The Noida Golf Course professional has been mixing it up with the best and with a day in the Rs. 1.5 crore ($203,800 approx) event to go, Malik sits in a three-way battle for to honours.
On Saturday, Malik had a 5-under par 67 to extend a tremendous run of form for a three-day total of 20-under par 196 and sits on the threshold of his biggest career victory.
Malik will tee off on Sunday alongside three-time Indian Open winner S.S.P. Chawrasia and another European Tour regular, Gaganjeet Bhullar, who share the lead in the Tata Steel PGTI event on 196s of their own.
The tie at the top has set up the final day event being played concurrently at the Beldih and Golmuri golf courses in Jamshedpur quite beautifully.
Kapurthala-based Bhullar and Kolkata’s Chawrasia, both winners on the European Tour and Asian Tour, as well as Noida’s Malik, were two shots clear of the chasing pack.
Determined display
While Gaganjeet climbed into contention with a determined third round 64, SSP and Malik – a a two-time winner on the PGTI – had rounds of 68 and 67 respectively on Saturday.
Bangalore’s Khalin Joshi produced the day’s best card of 10-under-62 to sit tied fourth on 18-under-198 alongside city-mate Chikkarangappa S. (68), the PGTI media office said.
The top 27 players out of 53 played their first nine holes at Golmuri and second nine at Beldih on Saturday.
The remaining 26 started at Beldih and wound up in Golmuri. The format will continue on Sunday during the final round.
Bhullar (69-63-64), lying tied fifth and five off the lead at the halfway stage, surged up the leader-board with a round that had nine birdies and a bogey to mark Moving Day.
The man with 10 international titles including eight on the Asian Tour made some tremendous recoveries from the trees early on and birdied thanks to up and downs from close to 100 yards both times.
Monster putt
Gaganjeet added a monster 40-foot birdie putt before producing another excellent wedge shot to set up a tap-in birdie to close out his first nine holes.
He consolidated with five more birdies over the next seven holes where he made a couple of good up and downs and also landed his approaches within five feet on two occasions.
His only bogey of the day on the 17th was the result of a missed up and down.
“It was a solid round and I feel a continuation from the second day where I had shot a nine-under,” Bhullar said later.
“I made a lot of up and downs for birdies. I also scrambled well at the start having found the trees twice.
“I’ve given myself a lot of chances in the last two days and putted really well.
“I’ve been getting close enough to the pins and have been converting those chances which kept building the momentum for me.
“I feel I’ve adjusted well to the varying conditions at the two courses.
“It’ll be interesting to play in the leader group along with S.S.P. after a long time. I can’t remember the last time we played together in the leader group on the final day.”
Malik (63-66-67) made his way up from overnight third and two off the lead even as his bogey-free run came to an end on the day.
First blemish
Among Malik’s seven birdies, two were tap-ins, two were long conversions and one was an up and down from the bunker. He also dropped two shots.
Amardeep said, “I feel I still have to be tighter with my game when I’m playing under pressure especially in the last two rounds.
“That’s the consistency I need. Today it was fun to play alongside my favourite Indian golfer S.S.P. Chawrasia.
“Fortunately, I’ll get to play in the same group as him tomorrow as well.
“I dropped my first bogey of the tournament today on the sixth. I therefore achieved a personal record this week by going bogey-free in a tournament for 41 holes.”
Chawrasia (67-61-68), overnight second and one off the lead, followed up his spectacular 61 on day two with a flawless 68 on Saturday.
Winner of six international titles including four on the European Tour, the 42-year-old said, “I missed a few short putts today but I was in control of my round.
“In round two I was much closer to the flags and holed more putts compared to today.
‘Self-belief’
“I’ll go into the last round with a lot of self-belief as I’ve won here on three previous occasions having played the same format, the front-nine at Golmuri and back-nine at Beldih.”
Joshi, still recovering from a wrist injury, made two eagles and six birdies during his 62 to rise 10 places from tied 14th.
Joshi’s two eagles came on the fourth and 16th holes. He landed his drive within five feet on the par-4 fourth while on the 16th he sank a 20-footer.
Delhi’s Arjun Prasad shot a 68 to be sixth at 16-under-200.
Rahil Gangjee (68) and round two leader Harendra Gupta (74) were tied seventh on 15-under-201 and Jyoti Randhawa (69) was tied ninth on 14-under-202.
Rashid Khan (68) and PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar (71) were tied 11th on 12-under-204.
Anirban Lahiri (72) was 16th on 10-under-206 and Shiv Kapur (72) was T21 on 7-under-209.
Also read: Gupta leads Tour C’ship as Chawrasia scorches Tata turf
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