In third round
Patna’s Aman Raj seized the initiative with the day’s best score of fiveunder-67 to take the lead after the penultimate round of the TAKE Open Golf Championship at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Saturday. The 22-year-old, 2016 PGTI emerging player of the year, leads the Rs. 1 crore event by one shot at nine-under-207.
Chandigarh duo Akshay Sharma, at eight-under-208, and Shubhankar Sharma, at sevenunder-209, will chase the leader on the final day from second and third place respectively. The leaderboard had a young look to it as 18-year-old rookie Karandeep Kochhar, also from Chandigarh, occupied tied fourth place at six-under-210 along with Gurgaon-based 21year-old Veer Ahlawat.
Four of the top five are 22 years and below in age while Akshay is the oldest at 27. The 21-yearold Shubhankar is the only among the five to have tasted success at the professional level.
Raj (73-67-67), helped by advice from his father Shashi Raj Sinha, a former professional himself, worked his way to the top of the pack with successive rounds of 67 after a disappointing opening 73.
It was a gradual rise for Aman from tied 46th in round one to tied fifth in round two to leader in round three.
Aman, India’s no. 1 amateur in 2015, produced a bogey-free round to set the stage for a shot at his maiden title.
The Patna-based professional had two early birdies followed up with three in succession on his back nine. Four of his five birdies came as a result of conversions from 10 to 12 feet.
Playing his second season as a professional, Raj said, “My hitting got better after Round One and that’s the reason I posted two scores of 67 thereafter. I could’ve been in trouble today had I missed an eight foot par putt on the opening hole. I also made a good curling par putt from six feet on the last hole.”
Akshay (71-68-69) moved from overnight tied third to second after his third round of 69. Akshay, 35th in the PGTI Order of Merit with one top-10 in the season, made a mammoth 30-foot birdie conversion early but dropped back to even-par for the day with a bogey later on.
Shubhankar (68-70-71), dislodged from the lead for the first time in the tournament, slipped to third after a round of 71. The Asian Tour regular and winner of four tournaments on the PGTI is the most experienced in the leading pack and hence a major contender, come the final day. Sujjan Singh (71) in tied eighth at four-under-212 was the fourth Chandigarh professional in the top-10.
Divyanshu Bajaj of Kolkata, the joint second round leader, dropped to tied 11th at threeunder-213 after his 75 on day three.