A flurry of bogeys and double bogeys on the back nine spoilt the card of Shubhankar Sharma, who tumbled from a decent T-48th at the start of the day to a disappointing 72nd at the end of his third round at the Open Championships, here on Saturday.
At the start, Sharma birdied the Par-5 second for the second day running and then had a nice birdie on ninth. But all that changed once the back nine began.
Double bogeys on 10th and 11th were followed by a bogey but he had a bogey-bogey on 13 and 14th. Once again on 15th he had a double. The birdie on 18th was somewhat soothing at the end.
He ended the day with a six-over 77 and was 72nd out of the 73 players who have made the cut.
He has one more day to repair his scorecard on the final day, which also happens to be his 23rd birthday.
“I sure would like to mark that with a good final round and make some amends,” he said.
Sharma was clearly disappointed with the outcome of the day, during which he lost two golf balls, on the fifth and the 15th. He had four birdies, four double bogeys and two other bogeys.
Yet, he tried to look at the positives.
“That birdie on the 18th, from 12-13 feet was a bright spot. It is not an easy hole, so that gave me something positive to go back with and hopefully it will be some momentum to play a good final day.”
Summing up his round he said, “Just too many doubles, four of them. One on fifth and then three on the back nine and twice I lost a ball, it was just one of those days, more so on the back nine. I just lost my swing on the back nine. It is not just the right course to lose your swing at any time and you need to be on fairways.”
Meanwhile, the leaders had just begun their third round, and of them making a big move was Lee Westwood, a man with no Majors in 81 previous starts but with a load of seconds and thirds in his 18 Top-10s.
Westwood starting at seven-under birdied second and third to get into a share of the lead with overnight co-leader, JB Holmes, who birdied the second.
Shane Lowry, the man from the southern part of the island, Republic of Ireland, was unable to replicate his three-birdies-in-a-row effort of second day and started par-par to stay at eight-under.
Asian Tour member, South African Justin Harding, who has had a phenomenal rise in past 18 months, birdied third and fourth to get to eight-under and tied third alongside Englishman Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry.
Among the big scorers so far were Danny Willet with five-under through 14 and Xander Schauffele with four-under through 11. They were six-under and seven-under respectively, but a lot will change as the day progresses.
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