Gaurav Pratap Singh shot a four-under 68 in the third round to move up to tied-second in the TAKE Open golf championship at the KGA course, here on Friday.
Gaurav, tied-eighth overnight, moved to within three stokers of the leader, S. Chikkarangappa. Keeping Gaurav company on nine-under 207 is Shubhankar Sharma.
Local lad Chikkarangappa (69, 67, 68), meanwhile, marched on. He extended his advantage on pole position with a third straight sub-par round. The 23-year-old started by carding birdies on his first three holes. A couple of erratic tee shots, however, resulted in bogeys on the fourth and ninth. Chikkarangappa consolidated his position with a strong show on the back-nine.
Chiragh Kumar, Bengaluru’s Rahil Gangjee and Sujjan Singh are tied-fourth. Seasoned campaigner Jyoti Randhawa is tied-11th at five-under 211.
The scores (54 holes, top-nine):204: S. Chikkarangappa (69, 67, 68); 207: Gaurav Pratap Singh (67, 72, 68), Shubhankar Sharma (68, 69, 70); 208: Chiragh Kumar (70, 69, 69), Rahil Gangjee (68, 70, 70), Sujjan Singh (66, 70, 72); 209: Jaibir Singh (A) (69, 69, 71), Anura Rohana (72, 66, 71); 210: Zamal Hossain (72, 70, 68), Sanjay Kumar (71, 69, 70).
