A two-horse race is set to decide the winner’s share in the $1.5 million Hero Indian Open golf on Sunday.
Overnight leader S.S.P. Chawrasia doubled his lead to two strokes over defending champion Siddikur Rahman of Bangladesh after an engaging third round at the Delhi Golf Club course here.
Chawrasia, who has never trailed this week, shot a two-under 69 for an aggregate of 12-under 201. Siddikur carded a 70, including a double-bogey on the par-4 15th, for a tally of 203.
A further three strokes behind was Australia’s Marcus Fraser who found two birdies on the final six holes for a 67.
The penultimate round was all about Chawrasia and Siddikur. After the two began with birdies, Chawaria enlarged his overnight lead to two after a second successive birdie. Thereafter, both players found pars, but Siddikur had more birdie-opportunities.
Dramatic last fourLike the opening hole, both birdied the 13th hole. On the last four holes, the drama returned.
On the 15th, Siddikur’s tee-shot found the branch of a tree on the left but the ball landed safely on the fairway. Relieved, yet a bit rattled, Siddikur unleashed his aggressive approach shot that found the greenside bunker.
He landed on the green off the next but dramatically three-putted for a double-bogey! With Chawrasia narrowly missing his birdie-putt, the lead between the two stood enlarged to four strokes!
On the 16th, Chawrasia came up with a brilliant, low approach shot to save par. Then followed the leader’s first error in 53 holes! Chawrasia faltered with his 8-iron tee-shot on the par-3 17th hole and eventually bogeyed it. Siddikur held his nerve to find par after landing in the bunker. The lead between the two stood reduced to three shots.
On the final hole, where Chawrasia found par, Siddikur picked up a shot to narrow the lead to just two strokes.
“I missed a few putts but I’m still happy,” said an ever-smiling Chawrasia and added, “I’m trying to be calm but I’m feeling very frustrated inside.”
Siddikur was happy with the way he finished the round. “I had a nice rhythm and picked up a couple of shots until the double bogey. I made a great par-save on 17th hole and then managed to birdie, that was very important.”
The scores (Indians unless stated): S.S.P. Chawrasia (65, 67, 69) 201; Siddikur Rahman (Ban) (65, 68, 70) 203; Marcus Fraser (Aus) (69, 70, 67) 206; Daniel Chopra (Swe) 70, 72, 65), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) (68, 70, 69) 207; Anirban Lahiri (73, 65, 70), Paul Peterson (USA) (69, 68, 71) 208; Adilson Da Silva (Bra) (71, 70, 68), Mithun Perera (Sri) (67, 70, 70), Richard McEvoy (Eng) (70, 67, 72) and Joakim Lagergren (Swe) (65, 71, 73) 209.
Other Indians: S. Chikkarangappa (69, 75, 68), Jeev Milkha Singh (72, 72, 68), Jyoti Randhawa (74, 69, 69) 212; Mukesh Kumar (71, 73, 69), Chiragh Kumar (69, 74, 70), Manav Jaini (73, 69, 71), Angad Cheema (72, 70, 71) 213; Kapil Kumar (72, 72, 70), Rashid Khan (71, 72, 71), Shubhankar Sharma (69, 72, 73) 214; Amardip Malik (75, 69, 71), Shiv Kapur (73, 69, 73), Arjun Atwal (70, 70, 75) 215; Om Prakash Chauhan (71, 73, 73) 217.
