Bengaluru golfer S Chikkarangappa stormed into the third round lead after firing a sublime 10-under 62, the week’s lowest score so far, at the TATA Steel Tour Championship here on Friday. With a total of 17-under 199, Chikka took a one-shot lead at the Rs 3 crore season-ending tournament being played at the Beldih and Golmuri Golf courses. Fourteen-time PGTI winner Chikka (66-71-62), who has been a runner-up on two previous occasions in Jamshedpur, zoomed 12 spots from his overnight tied 13th after his extraordinary third round effort that featured two early eagles.
Delhi’s Kapil Kumar (63-70-67), overnight tied second, produced a 67 to close the day in lone second place at 16-under 200 and kept himself in the top-3 for the third day running at the richest event on the PGTI.
Bengaluru’s Khalin Joshi (69-67-65) struck a 65 to move up six spots to third position at 15-under 201.
TATA Steel PGTI Rankings leader Manu Gandas of Gurugram was in a good position to stake his claim for the PGTI Order of Merit title. His round of 68 saw him continue in tied fourth place at 14-under 202, comfortably ahead of his nearest rivals for the title — Chandigarh’s Ajeetesh Sandhu (tied 14th at 10-under 206), Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow (tied 17th at nine-under 207) and Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (tied 42nd at one-under 215).
Second round leader Mohd Azhar (70) of Vikarabad slipped three spots to join Gandas and Karandeep Kochhar (68) of Chandigarh in tied fourth place.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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