By IANS
Gurgaon : Rahul Ganapathy, riding on the confidence gained from his first professional win last month, shot a second successive 67 to climb to the top of the leader board on the third day of the Solaris Chemtech Open Golf Championship here Friday.
Overnight leader Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia carded a level par 72 and dropped to second place while Australian Craig McLean shot 66 to record the best round of the day and move into third place at the Golden Greens Golf course.
Ganapathy, who won the Global Green Bangalore Open in December for his maiden professional win, is now nine-under 207 following rounds of 73 and 67 on first two days.
The Mysore professional, who has based himself in Gurgaon on the outskirts of the national capital to work on his game, parred the first eight holes Friday before sinking a birdie on the par five ninth.
On the back nine, Ganapathy sizzled with five birdies on the 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 18th. He dropped a lone bogey on the 17th.
“I really enjoyed myself on the back nine today (Friday). I like the back nine on this course and always play well on it. The only disappointment of the day was the bogey on the par three 17th. On the 17th I made a three putt after landing my tee shot 30 feet short of the pin. I also missed a 12 foot putt for eagle on the par five 18th,” said Ganapathy.
After leading in the first two rounds, Chowrasia fell back to second on Friday. Chowrasia’s scores of 67, 69 and 72 took his total to eight under 208.
The Kolkata golfer’s third round included three birdies, one bogey and one double bogey. He was two under at the turn after picking up birdies on the fifth and ninth.
He then went one over on the 16th after dropping a double bogey on the par five 14th and a bogey on the 16th. However, Chowrasia’s birdie on the 18th helped him pull back one stroke.
“The 14th hole played spoiler for me today. On the 14th I hit my tee shot in the rough, left of the fairway. My third shot from the left edge of the green also let me down as it went over the green. This was followed by a bogey on the 16th where I made a three-putt,” said Chowrasia.
McLean registered the best round of the day. His superb 66 placed him third at the end of round three. His total moved to six under 210.
McLean sank birdies on the first, second, fifth, 14th and 16th before closing with an eagle on the par five 18th. The Australian dropped a lone bogey on the 10th. McLean had shot level par 72 in his first two rounds.
Digvijay Singh, Anura Rohana, Vijay Kumar and Gaganjeet Bhullar are tied fourth and fifth with 211 while Ashok Kumar is in tied eighth with a total of three under 213.