Ahmedabad, Apr 21 (PTI) The Delhi pair of Rashid Khan and Kshitij Naveed Kaul moved into joint lead with a total of seven-under 137 after the penultimate round of the Ahmedabad Open here on Friday.
While two-time Asian Tour winner Rashid (34-35-68) struck a four-under 68 to jump six spots from his overnight tied-seventh position, three-time PGTI winner Kshitij (33-35-69) shot a three-under 69 to gain one spot from his overnight tied second.
Bangladesh’s Jamal Hossain (69) was one shot behind the leaders in third place, while 18-year-old rookie Shaurya Binu (71) of Bengaluru and Noida’s Amardeep Malik (71) shared the fourth place at five-under 139.
Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat returned the day’s best score of 67 to occupy tied-sixth place at four-under 140.
The first two rounds of the event comprised nine holes each. The third and fourth rounds comprise 18 holes each. The tournament will be played over a total of 54 holes.
The par for the course in the third and fourth rounds is 72. The nine-hole course was played twice in Round 3 with different pin positions.
Rashid took advantage of the par-5s, scoring birdies on the second, 11th and 14th. The 32-year-old also sank two long birdie putts on the eighth and 12th, the latter being a 30-footer. Rashid, having adjusted well to the speed of the greens on Friday, dropped only one bogey on the 13th.
“I felt that I gave myself a lot more chances from the fairways today as compared to the first two rounds. I gauged the green-speed better. I knew downhill putts would be tricky so the game plan was to try and land the ball short of the pins and not go over,” said Rashid.
“The game has been trending well. I’ve just been working on a few things that I feel are slowly falling into place.” Kshitij’s pin-point approach shots and good putting form saw him accumulate five birdies in exchange for three bogeys. The 22-year-old made three birdies on the front-nine by sinking putts from a range of 10 to 20 feet.
The highlight of his back-nine was the approach on the 15th that landed four feet from the flag and led to a birdie.
Delhi’s Shamim Khan, the leader in the first two rounds, dropped to tied eighth at three-under 141 after a third round of 74.
Source: PTI News
