Bengaluru, 03-06-2016
Louis Philippe Cup poised for exciting finish
Gaganjeet, Ajeetesh lift Hyderabad from seventh to joint second; Dev Chandigarh go into final round with 5-stroke lead
NSports Hyderabad came up with a spectacular double display at the KGA on Friday to jump from a lowly seventh place to the second position in the Louis Philippe Pro Golf League after three rounds.
Gaganjeet Bhullar shot a brilliant six under 66 while his teammate Ajeetesh Sandhu produced an equally sensational five under 67 to give a team aggregate of twelve under 420. That put them abreast with Shiv Chowrasia’s Take Chennai who came up with the day’s second best card, a five under 139, to move from fourth to joint second.
The Hyderabad team’s onslaught however wasn’t enough to shake off the leaders from the top: Dev Chandigarh. Amardip Malik and Himmat Rai, both, played steady rounds to finish with two under 70 each to hang on to the lead. That gave them a combined score of 17-under 415 after three rounds. They are sitting on a pretty five shot lead that should keep them in the driver’s position going into the fourth and final round on Saturday.
Zion Hills Bengaluru's Abhijit Chadha remained on top of the individual leaderboard, with a one-under 71 in the third round. That wasn’t however enough for Bengaluru to defend their overnight second position. They have now slipped to the sixth place with an aggregate of nine under 423.
Himmat Rai, sharing the second individual leaderboard position with Sri Lanka’s Mithun Perera, said: "I did well on the back nine and we needed that. I bogeyed the last hole but overall it was a good fight."
Aided by Khalin Joshi's three-under 69, Chennai moved up from fourth place on Thursday to joint second to be in a position to at least put pressure some pressure on Kapil Dev’s team.
"It was a good round of golf and I am very happy with my hitting. I was putting well as well, but in the back nine, it suffered a little. Nevertheless, I am satisfied with the team’s overall performance. We are currently in a decent position and have a good chance of winning. We will start attacking from the very first hole and see where it goes. It’s just a matter of one of us playing a very good deep round and we can very well win the tournament."
Joshi shot five birdies, on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 11th holes, but also had two bogeys, on the 4th and 10th holes.
The revelation of the day was clearly Bhullar, who bagged birdies on the 1st, 5th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 14th and 17th holes and a lone bogey on the 18th.
"I had not been hitting well and something like this was needed. There was less pressure on the greens and that helped my game. It was all about striking today. I missed a few short putts but got the crucial ones,” he said.
"As a team, we had discussed something like this as the leaders usually become clearer after the third round. Obviously, today's scores will help us in our quest for the title. We will continue to do what we did today," added Bhullar.
Sandhu shot birdies on the 2nd, 8th, 10th, 11th, 13th and 18th holes and the only blemish was a bogey on the 9th.
Sandhu said: "We had to do something like that to stay in the hunt. The attacking mindset had to be there. We are used to the greens now. The course is playing well and the greens are fast. I have not played greens at these speeds."
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