Ahlawat veers north
Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat posted a classy five-under66 to surge ahead in round three of the Golconda Masters Golf Championship being played at the Hyderabad Golf Club. Ahlawat held a one-shot lead at 14-under199.
Pune’s Udayan Mane delivered a 65 on the windiest day of the tournament to be placed second at 13-under-200 at the season-opening event.
Halfway leader Khalin Joshi of Bengaluru slipped to third place after a round of 71 took his total to 11-under-202.
Patna’s Aman Raj (68) and Delhi’s Shamim Khan
(69) were in tied fourth at
10-under-203. Venkkat Gautham (69-7273), the only Hyderabadbased professional to make the cut, occupied tied 33rd place at one-over214.
Ahlawat (65-68-66), lying second and two off the lead at the halfway stage, made a brisk start for the second day in succession as he birdied four of the first six holes thanks to two long putts and two quality chip-putts.
The tall and lanky Ahlawat, who earned his breakthrough win on the PGTI last year, then dropped a double-bogey after finding the water on the seventh. Thereafter, the birdies dried up for the 23-year-old in the middle stages of the round.
Ahlawat finally bounced back with birdies on the
15th, 16th and 18th. Veer, who recorded a careerbest fifth place finish on the PGTI Rankings in
2019, sank a 25-footer on the 16th and landed his approach from 100 yards to within three feet on the
18th.
Udayan Mane’s (68-67-65) week has progressively gotten better. He has zoomed from tied 18th in round one to tied seventh after day two and now moving up to second place. Mane, the winner of last season’s year-ending Tour Championship, had problems judging the wind direction that resulted in a bogey and a double-bogey for him on the fifth and seventh thus negating his birdie on the sixth.