With the Indians failing to rise to the occasion, the German-duo of overnight leader Yannik Paul and strong title-contender Marcel Siem made it a two-horse race going into the final round of the $2 million Hero Indian Open at the DLF Golf and Country Club here.
Saturday proved a better day for a number of golfers. But Paul was left relieved to finish at one-under 71 for a three-round aggregate of 11-under 205. Siem shot a 67 and reduced the overnight five-stroke gap, with Paul, to one.
A further two-stroke behind Siem was Dutchman Joost Luiten who enjoyed a three-stroke cushion over Veer Ahlawat, Spaniard Jorge Campillo and Dane Thorborn Olesen.
Ahlawat became the new flag-bearer for the host after a 68 and moved a spot ahead of overnight Indian front-runner Angad Cheema (73). Honey Baisoya (73) stayed a stroke behind Angad.
Five birdies on the first 10 holes saw Ahlawat gatecrash into the top-five but a bogey on the 14th hole slowed him down.
Coming back to the title-race, Paul stayed ahead for the third successive day but not before some early hiccups. A par-bogey-bogey start saw Paul down to 8-under while Siem’s birdies on the first and fourth holes placed him at -7 under.
Paul needed to do something special to tighten his loosening grip and he did. A hat-trick of birdies from the sixth hole, saw him move to 11-under. He did drop a shot on the 16th hole but a measured approach shot to reach the mounted green on the picturesque 17th hole set up his day’s last birdie.
“With a five shot lead, I knew there were still 36 holes to go. I obviously didn’t get off to the best start but I just tried to focus on myself. On six, seven, eight, I had nice birdies and then played pretty solid on the back nine,” said Paul.
Meanwhile, Siem added a birdie on the eighth hole for a front-nine 33. He moved closer to Paul with an 11th-hole birdie. Like Paul, Siem too had a lone bogey on the back-nine but did not lose his focus. His flawless iron-play set up a birdie-birdie finish.
Luiten shot seven birdies against three bogeys to stay in contention while Thorborn Olesen kept alive his outside chance after a blemishless 66 including five birdies on the back-nine.
Third-round scores (Indians unless stated):
205 - Yannik Paul (Ger) (65, 69, 71); 206 - Marcel Siem (Ger) (69, 70, 67); 208 - Joost Luiten (Ned) (70, 70, 68); 211 - Jorge Campillo (Esp) (73, 71, 67); Veer Ahlawat (73, 70, 68); Thorborn Olesen (Den) (73, 72, 66).
Other Indians:
212 - Angad Cheema (68, 71, 73); 213 - Honey Baisoya (66, 74, 73); 215 - Yashas Chandra (71, 71, 73); 216 - Gaganjeet Bhullar (75, 73, 68); Shubhankar Sharma (68, 74, 74); Manu Gandas (70, 73, 73); Sachin Baisoya (75, 69, 72); 217 - Kartik Sharma (74, 73, 70); Shiv Kapur (75, 73, 69); 218 - Yuvraj Sandhu (70, 71, 77); 219 - S. S. P. Chawrasia (75, 73, 71); S. Chikkarangappa (75, 69, 75); 220 - Karandeep Kochhar (77, 70, 74); 222 - M. Dharma (70, 78, 75); 226 - Khalin Joshi (72, 75, 79).
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