Rashid Khan (IND) shot a third round of 68 to be 11 under par on 205, in The DGC Open at Delhi Golf Club on the Asian Tour.
Khan, a two time winner on the Asian Tour, started the day in second spot. He opened up with a double bogey seven on the 518 yards first hole, but responded in style with four birdies and four pars to be out in 34. Two more birdies and no bogeys on the back nine sees Khan take a three shot lead into tomorrow (Sunday) final round.
There have been opportunities for him to win again since 2014, including at DGC where he has an outstanding record, and last year he finished runner-up twice: first in the Mandari Indonesia Open and then in the Mercuries Taiwan Masters, where he lost in extra-time to Chinese-Taipei’s Chan Shih-chang.
His fine DGC record, which may count for everything tomorrow (Sunday), also includes a play-off loss against India’s Dubai based Anirban Lahiri at the 2013 SAIL-SBI Open.
‘I am looking for a good round tomorrow and let the game talk,’ said the 32 year old, the prolific winner of 11 titles on the Professional Golf Tour of India.
‘These kind of rounds give you a lot of confidence, when I shot a bogey free round on day one I was happy. Then today on the first hole I was in the middle of the fairway off the tee and I ended up making a double so you know to come back and shoot that round gives you a lot of momentum. You know you are at the corner where your game is gonna come back.’
Lightning stopped played for 45 minutes when he was on the 11th but it did little to distract him as when play resumed he holed a difficult 30 footer for birdie.
Second round leader Chikkarangapa S. shot a 34 putt round of 74, to be the nearest challenger.
Five shots back of the leader in tied third are Honey Baisoya (IND), Chapchai Nirat (THAI) and Om Prakash Chouhan (IND). Baisoya shot the round of the day 65 by two shots with only five players breaking 70 in the field of 76 players, to move up from tied 49th at the start of the day.
Dubai’s Shiv Kapur (IND) shot a four over par 76 in with nines of 35 and 41 finishing double double.
Kapur tees off in the final round at 9.40 am from tee 10.
Round Three Leaders (6,935 Yards, Par 72)
1 - R. Khan (Ind) 67, 70, 68 = 205 (-11)
2 - Chikkarangapa S. (Ind) 68, 66, 74 = 208 (-8)
3 - H. Baisoya (Ind) 71, 74, 65 = 210 (-6)
- C. Nirat (Thai) 68, 71, 71 = 210 (-6)
- O. P. Chouhan (Ind) 69, 68, 73 = 210 (-6)
