Noida, 12-02-2015

Shamim Khan shoots 66 for third round lead

Shamim Khan of Delhi shot a bogey-free six-under-66 in round three of The Hemisphere PGTI Masters at the Noida Golf Course to take a one-shot lead at 11-under-205. Noida's Amardip Sinh Malik and Mukesh Kumar of Mhow were in joint second at 10-under-206.

Shamim Khan (72-67-66) signed a card of 66 on day three to climb from overnight tied third to the top of the pile. The 37-year-old, who so far has 10 titles to his credit, made an early breakthrough on Thursday as he landed his chip within a foot of the flag for birdie on the first. Shamim made his move up the leaderboard with an eight-feet birdie conversion on the fifth and a brilliant chip-putt for birdie on the eighth.

Shamim was in good form with the putter as he sank birdies from more than 20 feet on the 12th and 17th. He also recovered well after hitting it over the green on the 14th with a good chip-putt for birdie.

Shamim said, “It was great to have a bogey-free round today. I putted better than the first two rounds and landed my chip shots quite close to the pins. I also capitalized well on the par-5s having made birdies on all the four par-5 holes. The conditions were good today as the wind only picked up on the last four holes. I needed a low score today in order to get into a strong position ahead of the final round and I managed to do that.”

He added, “I had been missing a lot of short putts since last week’s event at Panchkula. But I managed to address that problem today. I recently changed my clubs and it’s taken some time to adjust to the new clubs. I’m quite comfortable with the clubs now and that reflects in my low scores over the past two days.”

Local lad Amardip Sinh Malik (68-70-68), who was overnight second, produced his second score of 68 this week to end the penultimate day in tied second. He chipped-in for eagle on the eighth, converted two long birdie putts and landed his chips within four feet for two more birdies. Malik also missed a couple of chip-putts and as a result dropped two bogeys.

Mukesh Kumar (68-67-71), the overnight leader, led for most part of the day as he was three-under through 15 holes. However, Mukesh conceded the lead to Shamim after he dropped strokes on the 16th and 18th.  

The Bangalore duo of Chikkarangappa (eight-under-208) and Khalin Joshi (five-under-211) occupied fourth and fifth spot respectively.