Cheema surges into lead at RCGC Cup on Day Three

Angad Cheema

Kolkata, December 15, 2011: Chandigarh’s Angad Cheema surged into the lead as he shot two-under for the total one-under 215 after the third day of RCGC Cup Amateur Golf Championship at The Royal Calcutta Golf Club here on Thursday. The duo of Bangalore S. Chikkarangappa and Khalin Joshi finished second and third respectively.

Chikka played a level-par round for the total of one-over 217 (72, 73, 72) while one shot behind was Joshi at 218 (69, 78, 71). Chandigarh’s Abhijit Chadha slipped to the fourth place after shooting two-over for the total of five-over 221 and Ambala’s Manav Das was fifth at 224.

Cheema, who was paired with Chikka and Chadha, hit birdies on 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th while bogeyed the 3rd, 8th and 18th. The 21-year-old Cheema said, “I struck the ball very well and played better than the last two days. Though, I was making couple of good chip putts from the edges of the green, I hit a bad shot on 18th and missed the putt from 3 feet. Thankfully, it happened on the last hole and I tried to control my anger with a mindset of getting the trophy with a cool mind tomorrow.”

Chikka didn’t make a very good start as he hit a triple bogey on the very first hole, birdied the second and double bogeyed the 3rd which made him loose the control on ball. He then tried avoiding the mistakes and made three birdies in a row on 7th, 8th and 9th. A bogey on 10th bothered him a bit but again he made a comeback to play regulations which gave him an eagle on the 15th. He said, “After four holes, I told myself that I need to bring my rhythm and timing back. Until yesterday, I have seen every corner of the club but today I have seen two hazards on the 1st and 3rd as well. By the time I reached 15th, I hit my first shot to the right, second to the green and after discussing with my caddy, I took a right decision for an eagle from a 15-footer. As I have done all the experiments in last three days, I wish I get a good start in the final day.”

Joshi, whose scorecard was blinking with all four’s in the front nine, shot two birdies on 4th and 11th and bogeyed the 2nd. Joshi said, “It’s unbelievable to see No. four in the front nine as it happened for the first time in my career. I played very decent golf today especially on 15th where I hit the driver down the center, used 9-iron from there and then holed the putt from 10 feet which bought me under-par for the day. I am just going to play average golf like today and hope to finish in top-three.”

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