It was yesterday once more for Mohammad Siddikur Rahman. Continuing his superb form, Siddikur broke away from the overnight three-man leader-group to establish a two-shot lead after the third and penultimate round of the $300,000 SAIL Open golf tournament here on Wednesday.
He signed off a second successive round of five-under 67 with a birdie for an impressive tally of 14-under 202. In fact, Siddikur was tied for the lead at 13-under with Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat after 17 holes.
On the 18th, Aphibarnrat found himself in the bushes with his tee-shot, but eventually did well to escape with a bogey and slipped into joint second place with Ajeetesh Sandhu. A calm and composed Siddikur's short birdie suddenly gave him a two-shot cushion at the top.
Sandhu kept alive hopes of an Indian champion. He shot a 68 to lead the home challenge on a day when Manav Jaini fired a superlative eight-under 64 to jump to the tied fourth place with Japan's Akinori Tani at 205.
Siddikur, who became the first Bangladeshi to win on the Asian Tour by claiming the Brunei Open last year, ‘eagled' the eighth hole from 12 feet and sank five other birdies.
“It was a great day and I'm happy with how I finished. I've been hitting it really good this week and I need to maintain that on the last day if I want to win my second Asian Tour title,” said Siddikur, fifth on the same course in the Indian Open last December.
Sandhu was happy with his effort as he hoped to make amends for missing the halfway cut Asian Tour Qualifying School in Thailand earlier this year.
“My game has been solid the whole week. I've been solid from tee to green and my putting has been good because the greens are in excellent conditions. You are only going to miss a putt if you misread the greens,” said Sandhu.
Jaini was elated with his best ever effort on this course. The man who shot eight birdies during a bogey-free round said, “It was a great day. I hit it beautifully from the word go. My performance at the Indian Open last year has given me a lot of confidence. It also taught me to stay in the moment and focus on the process rather than the result. That's exactly what I did today.”
The scores (Indians unless stated): Mohammad Siddikur Rahman (Ban) (68, 67, 67) 202; Ajeetesh Sandhu (69, 67, 68), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) (68, 67, 69) 204 each; Manav Jaini (68, 73, 64), Akinori Tani (Jpn) (68, 67, 70) 205 each; Namchok Tantipokakul (Tha) (72, 69, 67), Gaganjeet Bhullar (67, 69, 72) 208 each; Anirban Lahiri (66, 71, 72) 209; Jyoti Randhawa (70, 72, 68), Digvijay Singh (72, 70, 68), Shamim Khan (72, 67, 71) 210 each; Peter Karmis (RSA) (71, 71, 69), Daisuke Kataoka (Jpn) (73, 69, 69), Joonas Granberg (Fin) (69, 73, 69) 211 each.
