Tight race for title on final day
Sharma is now in line to become the 10th Indian to win the national Open and the fourth in a row after Lahiri and S. S. P. Chawrasia ( 2016, 2017).
Ajeetesh Sandhu ( 74) was the next best Indian after Shubhankar on T26 at two- over218. Jyoti Randhawa ( 76) and Lahiri ( 75) were both T32, Khalin Joshi was T37 at fiveover221, amateur Kshitij Naveed Kaul and Karandeep Kochhar were T48 at seven- over223 while Udayan Mane was T56 at 10- over- 226.
It might seem as the DLF Golf Course was striking back after yielding some low scores on the first two days. If Emiliano Grillo shot 65 on the first day and Shubhankar Sharma replied with a 64 on second, the DLF course allowed only Stephen Gallacher to get anywhere closer with a 67 in the third round of the Hero Indian Open.
While Gallacher, whose last two wins came in Dubai in 2013 and 2014, moves up to third, the lead is shared by India’s own Shubhankar and
Matt Wallace ( 70). The two are at seven- under, while Gallacher is at six- under.
Three players, led by leader of the first two rounds, Emiliano Grillo ( 78), Matthias Schwab ( 68) and Andrew Johnston ( 73) are at five- under and they are all in with a shot at the title on a course, where the battle will not be over till the very last. For good measure, there are two more players, including the talented Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal ( 74) and American Sihwan Kim ( 72) four- under, and three others, Paul Peterson ( 73), Ricardo Gouveia ( 71) and Aaron Rai ( 69) are at threeunder. So with so many players within four shots of the lead, it is going to be a tight fight to the finish. A win for Shubhankar would be awesome for the young lad, who has wowed the world in the past few months. The win will also likely push him into the top50 of the world and his invite to the Masters would look even more justified, not that there were any doubts about it.
A win for S h u b h a n k a r would also mean a fourth successive year that the title has stayed in India after Anirban Lahiri ( 2015), S. S. P. Chawrasia ( 2016 and 2017). It would indeed a big huge fillip for Indian golf as Indians stamp their presence on Asian, European and world stage.
The tees were moved back on certain holes and the pins were quite challenging and I am keen to see if it is going to be the same on Sunday and how the players adjust to it.