Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
Putting behind his two uneven rounds, Bangalore’s Khalin Joshi strode the course like colossus as he fired eight under 64 to join Bangladesh’s Siddikur Rahman in the lead at the end of the penultimate round of the Panasonic Open India at Delhi Golf Club on Saturday.
Ajeetesh Sandhu for the third successive round trailed the leaders by a stroke. He shot five under 67 which took his score to 12 under 204.
As it stands after 54 holes:
-13 @KhalinJoshi, @GolfRahman
-12 @ajeeteshsandhu
-11 Suradit
-10 RajLeaderboard: https://t.co/QjWj0puG4C pic.twitter.com/1KXTjPApPS
— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) October 27, 2018
Overnight tied 15, Joshi carded the best round of the day topple two-round leader Suradit Yongcharoenchai . However Siddikur with steady two under 70 managed to retain his place. The joint leaders aggregated identical 13 under 203
So good was Joshi that he outscored the field by three as the next best card was 67. The Indian hit 9 birdies and a bogey while Siddikur dropped two strokes while hitting four birdies in this round
“ I am very happy with the way I played, pretty solid. I mean I hit pretty well of the tee. I am putting pretty good, so overall the game is in good shape. I am just happy with the way I am playing.”Joshi said after his round.
“I have been playing pretty solid all week. I just didn’t finish well on the first day. Finished with two bogeys. I have a fair chance on Sunday and hopefully I will be up there all throughout the game”.
Siddikur was optimistic about the final round.” I got off to a great start with three birdies in a row. Dropped a few shots after that but all in all, it wasn’t too bad. I had some doubts here and there about my game during the round but I managed to control myself and told myself not to think about what will happen.
“It will be a fearless day tomorrow. I have a lot of experiences playing in the leader group before so that won’t be a matter to me. It’s always good to have a one-shot lead.
However Ajeetesh was not happy with his showing.” I am disappointed with my score because I played a lot better than that. But still I’m just 1 back so that doesn’t mean anything, there are still 18 holes to go. Just one of those things and hopefully tomorrow I’ll get a bit more lucky.
Suradit, failed to reproduce the first two rounds magic. The 20 year old Thai finished par 72, hitting four birdies and equal number of bogeys as he slipped to fourth place with 11 under 205 score.
“I think I just wasn’t lucky today. But I am just two shots behind. I think I still have a good chance tomorrow.I will focus on hitting more fairways tomorrow and see how it goes. I am looking forward to it’ said Suradit.
Another Indian Aman Raj who returned 4 under 68 , moved up to be the sole occupant of the 5th slot with the score of 10 under 206
It turned out to be a poor day for veteran Jeev Milkha Singh .After two good rounds, he came up with a three over par 75 show.He slipped from T6 to T24 Giving him company was Rashid Khan, overnight 5th, who shot dismal four over 76. Both have identical four under 212
Debutante Kshitij Naveed Kaul, returned two under 70 while Thai challenger Jazz Janewattananond shot one over 73 .Both with 8 under 208 were tied 11.
In between there were two hole-in-ones, by eight-time Asian Tour winner Jyoti Randhawa and by Venezuelan Woolmer Murillo, who plays on the Asian Development Tour. Both aced Par-3 12th
Defending champion Shiv Kapur shot one under 71 while 2015 winner Chirag Kumar returned four under 67, Jyoti Randhawa hit five under 67 and Tapy Ghai had par 72 round.All of them are tied 17 with a score of 5 under 211 each.
Two other former champions Mukesh Kumar (2016) and Digvijay Singh (2012) were tied at 14 and 39 respectively.