Nakajima enlarges lead to four strokes; Ahlawat stays six behind
A brilliant finalhole birdie enlarged overnight leader Keita Nakajima’s lead to four shots at 18 over the duo of Romain Langasque and gatecrasher Gavin Green.
Though a yettotrail Nakajima goes into the final day of the $2.25 million Hero Indian Open here with a comfortable lead, a dramatic twist on Sunday cannot be ruled out. At least four players kept alive their chances of lifting the coveted trophy.
Among the eight Indians making the ‘cut’ at 143, Veer Ahlawat remained the best. He stayed six strokes behind the leader after a threeunder 69. Manu Gandas (70) spoilt a strong backnine finish after two late bogeys, in succession.
Nakajima’s twostroke lead evaporated on the eighthhole after he sent his teeshot into the water for a bogey while nearest contender Langasque found his fourth birdie to catch up at 16under.
To the credit of the Japanese, he regained focus to rebuild his twostroke lead after birdies on the 11th and 12th.
Langasque, desperate for birdies, erred on the 13th to fall back by three strokes and slipped further when he geyed the 16th.
Nakajima, too, failed to crack the 14th for the third day in succession and bogeyed. But he stayed ahead at 17 saving par on the 15th and consolidated his lead by adding a lasthole birdie. Lagasque, too, finished with a birdie.
While all the attention was on the two frontrunners, Gavin Green of Malaysia made a charge. He shot a stunning, flawless 64 to jump to the tiedsecond spot after three birdies on the last four holes. On the frontnine, Green found three birdies and an eagle3 on the eighth hole to raise visions of a strong finish.
On Sunday, Green could doublebowell be the man to watch.
Leading scores:
Keita Nakajima (Jpn) (65, 65, 68); Romain Lagasque (Fra) (66, 66, 70), Gavin Green (Mal) (72, 66, 64); Matteo Manassero (Ita) (65, 68, 70), Ko Jeong Weon (Fra) (67, 67, 69).
Other Indians: 208: Manu Gandas (73, 65, 70); 210: Aman Raj (68, 68, 74); 211: Karandeep Kochhar (68, 70, 73); 212: Shubhankar Sharma (70, 70, 72); Rashid Khan (71, 69, 74); Gaganjeet Bhullar (70, 69, 80); and Jairaj Singh Sandhu (72, 70, 78).
Prominent Indians who missed the ‘cut’: 144: Khalin Joshi (71, 73); 145: Anirban Lahiri (77, 68); Shiv Kapur (74, 72);
Udayan Mane (72, 76);
Rahil Gangjee (71, 78), Ajeetesh Sandhu (74, 75); S. Chikkarangappa (78, 72).