Jamshedpur, Dec 21 (PTI) Yashas Chandra fired a flawless five-under 66 in round three to make his way to the top of the leaderboard in the Rs 3-crore Tata Steel Tour Championship here on Saturday.
Mysuru’s Yashas (69-64-66), who was overnight fifth and four shots off the lead, climbed four places as his total reached 14-under 199 in the the Tata Steel PGTI’s season-ending event, being played at the Beldih and Golmuri Golf Courses.
Yashas, yet to win a title, is enjoying a one-shot lead going into the last round on Sunday.
Udayan Mane (67-65-68), two-time winner of the championship, shot a steady 68 to move up two spots to second at 13-under 200.
Greater Noida-based Sudhir Sharma (67) and Sri Lankan N Thangaraja (70) were in tied-third place at 12-under 201.
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 the second nine at Beldih Golf Course, while the other half of the field played Beldih first followed by Golmuri.
The same format will be followed for the final round as well.
Yashas, 29, currently eighth on the PGTI’s merit list with seven top-10s this season, sank four birdies on the front-nine.
After the turn, he picked up another birdie on the Par-5 12th. While the putts did not fall for him on the back-nine, Yashas made sure not to concede any shots by making pars all the way till the end.
“I’m delighted with the way I struck the ball today. The only disappointment was missing a few putts here in Beldih. I felt today my tee shots were better than the previous two days and that made a huge difference,” said Yashas.
“The biggest challenge here is getting the speed right on the greens on both courses. That’s the reason we have to practice some putts here in Beldih before resuming our round after arriving from Golmuri.” Udayan Mane too made steady progress, hitting it close as he picked up four birdies in exchange for a bogey. He almost drove the green on the Par-4 fourth hole and left himself a tap-in for birdie on the eighth. However, a number of putts didn’t roll in for Mane as he had a couple of lip-outs and a couple that grazed the hole.
Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Sandhu produced a tournament low of eight-under 63 that had five consecutive birdies. He was placed tied sixth at 10-under 203 along with PGTI Ranking leader Veer Ahlawat (68).
C Muniyappa of Bengaluru made a hole-in-one on the seventh during his round of 69 that placed him tied eighth at nine-under 204.
Defending champion and two-time winner Gaganjeet Bhullar (67) was a further shot behind in tied 10th place.
The three Jamshedpur-based professionals Karan Taunk (three-over 216), Kurush Heerjee (11-over 224) and Digvijay Singh (15-over 228) were placed tied 49th, tied 56th and 61st respectively. PTI AM AM TAP
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