Malik opens
Noida’s Amardip Sinh Malik opened up a fiveshot lead on Day Three of the ONGC Masters to stake a solid claim to the title. Playing on home ground, the Noida Golf Course, Malik carried his tournament tally to a healthy 16under-200 on Friday thanks to a four-under-68 on the day with Delhi’s Kapil Kumar (70) and Bengaluru’s M. Dharma (73) tied second at 11-under-205.
Malik, joint leader with Dharma overnight, raced away with a solid 68. With his only title coming three years ago at the same venue, he fired six birdies and a double bogey to raise hopes of a second professional title.
The 32-year-old pulled away with two early birdies and though he had a double bogey to follow, he bounced back quickly with birdies on the next two holes.
With Dharma stumbling on the back nine, Malik seized the opportunity by adding two more birdies to build a healthy lead. For the second straight day, Malik birdied the 14th despite landing his drive in the hazard.
“I feel this has been my best round so far this week. I started well but then dropped a doublebogey. However, I kept calm and got back into my rhythm soon to add four more birdies to my card. I’m happy the way I came back after the double-bogey,” Malik said.
“I made some good up and downs from the bunker as well. I have a comfortable lead at the moment so I’m quite confident ahead of the final round. But there’s a lot of golf still to be played, so I can’t relax at any stage. I’ll take it one hole at a time and only look to attack where I really need to.”
Dharma (63-69-73) slipped to tied second as he couldn’t replicate his effort from the first two rounds. He began well with three birdies on the first six holes but then struggled with his short game, picking up just one birdie at the cost of five bogeys from the seventh to the 18th.
Kumar (68-67-70) moved up one place from overnight tied third with a round of 70 that included five birdies and three bogeys. Delhi’s Ashok Kumar and Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow were tied for fourth at nine-under-207.
Noida golfers Dipankar Kaushal (six-under-210) and Rahul Bajaj (five-under-211) were tied ninth and tied 12th respectively.
The other two Noida players in the field, Vikrant Chopra (fourunder-212) and defending champion Gaurav Pratap Singh (oneover-217) were tied 15th and tied 31st respectively.