Panchkula, Haryana, 19-10-2024

Rahil Gangjee regains lead, Varun Parikh gives chase on day three

First round leader Rahil Gangjee of Bengaluru regained the lead on day three of the INR 1 crore Haryana Open 2024 being played at the Panchkula Golf Club (PGC) following his solid round of five-under 67 that moved his total to 15-under 201.

Varun Parikh of Ahmedabad, who too had a great start to the week like Rahil but slipped in round two, also bounced back with a 67 on Saturday that placed him second at 14-under 202.

TATA Steel PGTI Ranking leader Veer Ahlawat of Gurugram too struck a 67 to make his way to tied third at 12-under 204. Pune’s Rohan Dhole Patil (67) and Chandigarh’s Akshay Sharma (70) joined Ahlawat in tied third position.

Angad Cheema (71) was the other Chandigarh-based player in the top-10 as he occupied tied sixth place at 11-under 205 along with Dhruv Sheoran and Sachin Baisoya.

Halfway leader Pukhraj Singh Gill (74) of Ludhiana dropped to tied ninth place at 10-under 206.

Rahil Gangjee (63-71-67), who was overnight tied third and two off the lead, had a mixed front-nine where he sank three birdies largely thanks to his excellent 3-wood shots and dropped two bogeys as a result of finding the rough on both occasions.

Gangjee, a winner of eight titles including two on the Asian Development Tour (ADT) this year, then stepped on the gas on the back-nine by picking up four more birdies including two conversions from a range of 10 to 18 feet. The 46-year-old, who originally hails from Kolkata, capitalized on all the four par-5s by scoring birdies on each of those holes.

Rahil said, “While my first round was incredible, I couldn’t follow that up with a great second round. But today’s effort gave a glimpse of both my previous rounds. It was a more realistic day for me. However, I’m glad that it helped me bounce back into contention.

“The positive side for me is that I feel it’s much easier to handle the emotions after a mixed day rather than when you have an extraordinary day and the expectations the following day are much higher. I’ll just look to stay in the present in the final round.”

Varun Parikh (64-71-67), who was overnight tied eighth and three off the lead, got off to a great start with four birdies on the first five holes including a chip-in on the fourth to take the early lead.

Varun, a winner on the PGTI in 2022, then played some outstanding wedge shots for his three birdies on the back-nine that came in exchange for two bogeys. He left himself a two-footer for birdie on the 16th and made his second chip-in of the day for par on the 18th.

Varun said, “I was quite calm today. I was not thinking about the score but instead just following my process and enjoying myself out there. Hopefully, I can repeat the same in the final round.”

Last year’s champion Jairaj Singh Sandhu of Chandigarh ended the day in tied 26th place at four-under 212.