Panasonic Open India Golf: Chiragh hangs on to slim lead on Day 3

S. Chikkarangappa wants to follow in the footsteps of his mentor Anirban Lahiri. From struggles to missed cuts, the Delhi Golf Club course has been cruel to the youngster in his amateur days. Chikka now aims for that ‘special win’ at the venerable course, which was Lahiri’s launchpad.

Lahiri, the current Asia Tour Order of Merit leader, clinched his first Tour title here in 2011.

On Saturday, the 22-year-old took a step ahead towards his dream with a four-under par 68 for a total of eight-under 208. He is three shots off the pace — it could have been two strokes had he not bogeyed the final hole. That was the only blemish in his card against five birdies on Day Three of the Panasonic Open India here. Chikka though was happy as he shares third place with Zamal Hossain of Bangladesh (70).

“Probably, I’ll ring up Anirban and get a few tips from him. He won his first Asian Tour event here at the Delhi Golf Club. I would like to follow in his footsteps.

“The DGC is always special for me because I have a lot of memories here. As an amateur I never made a cut, and as I turned professional I started making cuts and playing well. So I am really looking forward to tomorrow,” said Chik-ka, who defended his Take Masters title on the Asian Development Tour last week. The youngster’s accuracy off the tee was the strongest point of his key of his game on the day.

“I am just going to stick to my strategy; the way I have been playing for the last three days. But I am struggling a little bit in reading the speed of the greens. I guess tomorrow is the day for me to roll them in.”

Home favourite Chiragh Kumar hung on to his lead with an even par 72 but after surviving some blips. Starting three ahead of the field, Chiragh’s lead was cut down to one following a roller-coaster round highlighted by three straight birdies from the 13th.

He was one stroke ahead of Bangladesh’s Siddikur Rahman who fired a blemish-free 68. Siddikur, who has several top-10 finishes at his favourite hunting ground, birdied the last hole from four feet to stay in contention.

An inconsistent swing saw Chiragh’s hitting his tee shot into the bushes on the opening hole and was punished with a third bogey of the day on the par-three 17.

The 31-year-old however wanted to look into the positives. “I’m happy I hung on there and fought hard. I’m not disappointed, I have never been in this position before. I would look to make the most of it,” he said.

Leaderboard 205 - Chiragh Kumar 67-66-72; 206 - Siddikur Rahman (Ban) 68-70-68; 208 - Chikka S. 69-71-68, Zamal Hossain (Ban) 71-67-70; 209 - Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 68-72-69, Mithun Perera (Sri) 66-70-73; 210 - Shubhankar Sharma 70-73-67, Vikrant Chopra (Ind) 71-68-71; 211 - Rashid Khan 71-71-69, Sujjan Singh 71-70-70, Shankar Das 69-71-71