Jamshedpur, Dec 23 (PTI) Rahil Gangjee and Angad Cheema emerged as top contenders for the title after their brilliant rounds of seven-under 65 placed them in a joint three-way lead along with Gaganjeet Bhullar after the third round of TATA Steel Tour Championship here on Saturday.
Bhullar fired a 67 as the trio was tied at the top with totals of 19-under 197 at the PGTI’s season-ending event.
Divyanshu Bajaj (65), Arjun Prasad (65), Kartik Sharma (66) and Shivendra Singh Sisodia (66) were a distant tied fourth at 15-under 201 at the Beldih and Golmuri Golf Courses.
The first three rounds of the richest event on the PGTI saw one half of the field play their first nine holes at Golmuri Golf Course and second nine at Beldih Golf Course, while the other half of the field played Beldih first followed by Golmuri.
This format will also be followed for the fourth and last round of the tournament in Jamshedpur with the par for the round being 72. The leading groups will start at Golmuri and finish at Beldih.
Gangjee (70-62-65), who shot a personal best of 62 on day two, made three birdies and a bogey on the front-nine where his bunker shot on the fourth that set up a tap-in stood out.
Unlike previous rounds, the 45-year-old Gangjee, a winner of three international titles, had a better back-nine at Beldih where he picked up an eagle and three birdies.
His eagle putt on the 12th was from 30 feet while he also rolled in two 12-footers for birdies and played a great wedge shot to leave himself a short birdie conversion on the 13th.
Cheema (66-66-65), like Gangjee, also rose one place. The Chandigarh golfer went bogey-free as he was brilliant with his chipping. The 33-year-old Cheema, currently ninth on the PGTI Order of Merit, landed it within three feet on four occasions to set up birdies.
Bhullar (64-66-67), the overnight leader by two shots, kept himself in the hunt on Saturday by putting together an eagle and five birdies at the expense of two bogeys.
Last year’s winner Chikkarangappa S (67) was tied 13th at 12-under 204.
PGTI Ranking leader Om Prakash Chouhan (65) was placed tied 16th at 11-under 205.
Chouhan is now the top favourite to bag the number one spot in the PGTI Ranking as Aman Raj, his nearest rival in the merit list, was placed tied eighth at 14-under 202.
Aman needs to win the season-ending event in order to have a shot at the No. 1 spot in the Order of Merit.
The two Jamshedpur-based professionals Karan Taunk (two-under 214) and Kurush Heerjee (eight-over 224) were placed tied 56th and tied 71st respectively.
Source: PTI News
