Chowrasia shoots day’s best to be second

Ahmedabad, January 31, 2014: Bangalore’s Anirban Lahiri enjoys a four-shot advantage going into the final round of the PGTI Ahmedabad Masters presented by Kalhaar Blues & Greens, a PGTI Super Series event. Lahiri carded a sedate one-under-71 in tough scoring conditions on Friday to extend his overnight lead by two shots and take his total to 11-under-205. Kolkata’s SSP Chowrasia shot the day’s best score of 67 to occupy second place at seven-under-209 at the Rs. 50 lakh event.

Anirban Lahiri (64-70-71), the overnight leader by two shots, started day three by converting a tricky seven-feet birdie putt on the second. He picked up another shot on the fifth to go two-under for the day. The 26-year-old lost some momentum after missing the green and subsequently missing a five-footer for par on the eighth. The Asian Tour No. 3 came back well with an eight-feet birdie conversion on the 13th. Anirban was in trouble once again after he hit it out of bounds on the 14th but made a great recovery to salvage a bogey there. Lahiri is now looking at his fourth win in four starts on the PGTI. He has won the last three PGTI tournaments he has appeared in.

Anirban said, “The conditions were the toughest today compared to the last two days. It was windy and the tees were back. I felt I didn’t have any momentum today. I just didn’t have a good stretch of holes unlike previous rounds. The two bogeys didn’t allow me to settle down. I could’ve done better on the par-5s as well. Nonetheless, I was glad to make a splendid recovery on the 14th after hitting it out of bounds. SSP and Shankar were outstanding today as they shot really good scores in the difficult conditions.”

  

SSP Chowrasia (68-74-67), climbed from overnight tied ninth to second place after shooting the day’s best score of five-under-67. SSP, a two-time winner on the European Tour, had a slow start to the day as he bogeyed the second and fourth. Chowrasia came roaring back with birdies on the fifth and sixth to get back to even-par for the day. He was on fire on the back-nine making four straight birdies from the 12th through the 15th. The 15-feet birdie putt on the 17thhelped him close the day on a high.

Chowrasia said, “I had my best round of the tournament today. I set up many birdie opportunities for myself. I sank two long birdie putts and just got on a roll from the 12th onwards. I also landed it within a couple of feet of the pin on two occasions. I know I’ll be up against some really tough competition in the final round as Anirban is playing extremely well at the moment. However, I feel I can put up a good fight in the last round.”

Faridabad’s Abhinav Lohan came up with a 74 in round three after his two scores of 68 to end the day in third place at six-under-210. Panchkula-based professional Angad Cheema was a further shot back in fourth place.

Kolkata golfer Shankar Das posted a brilliant 68 to be placed joint fifth along with Chandigarh’s Sujjan Singh at four-under-212. Shankar’s round featured a magical moment as he holed his second shot from 170 yards to make eagle on the par-4 15th.

Rahil Gangjee of Kolkata was in seventh place at three-under-213.

Reigning Rolex Rankings champion Rashid Khan of Delhi lies in 10th place at even-par-216 while Himmat Singh Rai is placed 12th at two-over-218.

Fifteen-year-old amateur Varun Parikh (75-75-79) of Ahmedabad was in tied 46th place after his third round of 79 that took his total score to 13-over-229.