Shamim leads in Kolkata Classic
Had Shamim Khan, who goes into the final day of the Kolkata Classic Golf Championship as sole leader on 10-under 206, driven better he could have run away with this Rs 40 lakh tournament not just move up from being second. Conversely, had second round leader Mukesh Kumar putted okay, he wouldn’t have slipped a rung with 7-under 209.
On a Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) course that played tough in slightly windy conditions --even the greens were firmer, said SSP Chawrasia --- city golfer Shankar Das and Sri Lanka’s Mithun Perera moved up to share the third spot at four-under 212. For Das too it was a case of regularly missing birdie putts on the front nine but he managed the day’s best round of four-under with Shamim. S Chikkarangappa, overnight second, went four-over on Thursday and slid to tied 10th with an aggregate score of 1-under 215.
Chawrasia overcame five bogeys in his first 13 holes with an equal number of birdies between the 12th and the 18th to end on par and aggregate three-under 213. “A good comeback all right but I was not happy with my swing at all at the start. All I am aiming for is a low round tomorrow,” said the reigning Indian Open champion. Soon after a round that had three birdies, three good par efforts and an eagle on the fourth following a 110-yard drive, Delhi’s Shamim went to work soon on the range; going to the hospital to find a cure is how he put it. “Driving ‘bilkul nahi ho raha hai (was not happening at all). I hope to start steadily tomorrow,” said the 38-year-old.
Three strokes adrift, there will be no other option but to attack from tee-off for Kumar. Let down by his putting in the first and second holes, Kumar had three successive bogeys but hit four birdies till a bogey in the 17th gave him a par round.