Abhijit Singh Chadha powers ahead with day’s best 65 in round three of BILT Open

Muniyappa two off lead, snapping at leader’s heels

Mewat, Haryana, October 8, 2015: Chandigarh’s Abhijit Singh Chadha powered ahead by two shots in round three of the BILT Open 2015 after he shot the day’s best score of seven-under-65. Chadha thus took his total to an impressive 13-under-203 at the Classic Golf & Country Club on Thursday. C Muniyappa of Bengaluru was snapping at the leader’s heels at 11-under-205 after his third round of one-under-71.

Abhijit Singh Chadha (68-70-65), who was overnight tied fifth, made his move on day three with a stupendous seven-under-65 that featured eight birdies and a bogey. Abhijit was quick off the blocks on Thursday as he collected birdies on the second, third and fifth thanks to a couple of 12-footers. The 24-year-old, who had a top-10 in Jaipur last week, dropped his only bogey of the day on the sixth after a couple of erratic iron shots. Chadha then made his second chip-putt birdie of the round on the ninth to make the turn at a promising three-under.

Abhijit built on the good work done on the front-nine with four more birdies on the inward nine. He left himself a tap-in for birdie on the 10^th before picking up shots with some exquisite chip-putts on the 12^th, 15^th and 18^th. The 2012 PGTI Emerging Player of the Year signed off with a 12-feet birdie conversion on the closing 18^th. Chadha thus set up an interesting final day with the likes of the more experienced C Muniyappa, Om Prakash Chouhan and Anura Rohana breathing down his neck.

“I made some good up and downs today including two from the bunker. I felt the conditions were more suitable for scoring today as the greens play easier in the first half of the day. I’ve been playing really good golf since last week. I’ve been in contention in both weeks thanks to some of the changes that I’ve made to my game. I changed my swing during the mid-season break and also worked on my balance and posture. The changes have helped me in my ball-striking and putting,” said Chadha.

He added, “My 45-day golfing tour of the United States during the summer has also helped me grow in confidence. I played a lot of different courses during my trip to the US and I shot some good scores there.

“Even though I couldn’t capitalize on my third round lead last week, I’m quite confident going into the final round this week. I just need to repeat what I’ve been doing over the first three days.”

C Muniyappa (63-71-71), the overnight joint leader, slipped to second place after a second straight 71 on Thursday. Muniyappa, the 2009 Indian Open champion, had a wonderful start with birdies on the first two holes where he converted from eight feet and five feet. He didn’t have such a great back-nine as he made two bogeys against a lone birdie thanks to some ordinary iron shots.    

The seasoned Muniyappa said, “I got off to a good start today but didn’t really build on it. I’ll not bother too much about the leaderboard tomorrow. I just want to play according to the targets I’ve set for myself.”

Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow climbed up from overnight tied 13^th to tied third after a brilliant 66 on day three. Chouhan shared third place at nine-under-207 along with defending champion Anura Rohana of Sri Lanka, the overnight joint leader, who slipped two places after a round of 73.

Gurgaon-based Deepinder Singh Kullar, Meerut’s Sudhir Sharma and Shankar Das of Kolkata were in tied fifth at eight-under-208.

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