Ho Tram, Vietnam, 05-12-2015
Rai stays in title hunt at Ho Tram Open, occupies tied fourth after round three
Lahiri slips to tied 15th in the Bahamas
India’s Himmat Rai (66-69-68) battled into contention with a three-under-68 in the third round of the US$1.5 million Ho Tram Open on Saturday. Rai now lies tied fourth at 10-under-203, three shots off the lead.
The one-time Asian Tour winner suffered a double bogey on the par three fourth hole following a poor chip after an opening birdie but recovered with four more birdies.
Himmat, 28, said, “I played really good and kept to my strategy. It is about sticking to the routine and doing it over and over again. It was good how I bounced back from the double bogey. During the round, I didn’t even remember I made a double bogey. For the whole day, I was trying to hit it one shot at a time.”
Rai, who last tasted victory on the Asian Tour after his dramatic five-way play-off win in Singapore in 2011, added, “A win is what we are all here for. For me it is strictly about playing one shot at a time and enjoying the moment. I’m happy with the way I’m playing.”
“I regrouped well from the double bogey and didn’t feel down. That’s something I can learn from this round and use it in future rounds. I played earlier in the year on the Asian Development Tour (ADT) in a typhoon in Taipei. That really helped me get used to playing in these (windy) conditions,” said Rai.
Among the other Indians, Jeev Milkha Singh was tied 29th at two-under-211, Gaganjeet Bhullar was a further shot back in tied 34th, Rahil Gangjee was tied 40th at even-par-213 and Khalin Joshi was 65th at six-over-219.
At the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, debutant Anirban Lahiri had another disappointing day on the greens. The 28-year-old Indian shot one-over 73, and was four-under-212 on Tied 15th, down a place from overnight Tied-14th.
“It is all the more disappointing because the past couple of days have been good to score,” said Lahiri. On the play on Saturday, he said, “I just could not get going, neither on front or back nines. It was overall quite disappointing as I got off to a bad start and never got any momentum going.”
A mud ball (meaning mud was stuck on the ball, but he could not lift to clean it because it was not on the greens) resulted in a bogey on the fourth for Lahiri, his only bogey on the front nine. “The mud ball on fourth lead to an errant approach shot and a resultant bogey,” said Lahiri, who also missed a short putt on seventh.
A second bogey on 13th was followed by back-to-back birdies on 14th and 15th but a final bogey on 17th killed any chances of a recovery, at least for the day. Earlier, Lahiri did make a couple of good par saves, but continued to miss short putts, like another four-footer on seventh.
“Anyway I will try to finish strongly in the final round of the tournament, after which I will be taking time off for a while,” added Lahiri, who plays with Bahamas-resident Justin Rose in the final round.
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