Hero Indian Open: Ahlawat lies tied 4th, Paul takes one-shot lead to final day

Gurugram, Feb 25 (PTI) Veer Ahlawat struck a sparkling four-under 68 to emerge as the best-placed Indian at tied fourth while Germany’s Yannik Paul survived a rocky start to card a one-under 71 and hold on to a one-shot lead in the Indian Open here on Saturday.

On the third day of the USD 2 million tournament, Ahlawat (73, 70, 68) climbed 15 spots to lie in a three-way tie with Thailand Classic champion Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen (73, 72, 66) and Spain’s Jorge Campillo (73, 71, 67) at five-under at the tricky DLF Golf Course here.

The 26-year-old, who won the Pune Open and had a joint runner-up finish at the season-ending TATA Steel Tour Championship last year, was six shots adrift of Paul and five behind another German Marcel Siem (67).

Two shots behind Siem was Dutch golfer Joost Luiten (70, 70, 68).

Honey Baisoya (66, 74, 73) and Angad Cheema (68, 71, 73) carded a matching 73 to keep themselves inside the top 10.

Overnight leader Paul’s back-to-back bogeys at the start opened the doors for the other golfers and Cheema, Honey and Mysore-based Yashas Chandra (71, 71, 73) also moved up in the leader board during the day but couldn’t sustain it.

Chandra, in particular, picked up five shots to move within four of the top despite a late bogey. But he faltered in the back nine, dropping a triple bogey at the 10th and a double bogey at the 17th. He was tied 16th.

It was Ahlawat, who took the baton on Day 3. He had five birdies in his first 10 holes and then had just one bogey and no birdies in the remaining eight.

“I had a really solid start, I was four under after eight holes. I got to five under but then I dropped a shot on hole 14, but overall, it was a good, solid striking performance,” said the 2019 Indian Oil Servo Masters winner.

“I just feel I’m more mature now. I’ve played this course a lot more and I’m striking the ball better than last time.

“I’m just going to try and take it shot by shot and try not to worry about what the outcome is going to be.”

Starting the day at tied second, Cheema dropped four birdies but squandered the advantage with three bogeys and a double bogey. He shared the seventh place with Japan’s Kazuki Higa (75, 66, 71) and Spain’s Angel Hidalgo (72, 73, 67).

Honey, who was placed second after the opening day, made a birdie and a double bogey to take his total to three-under, same as Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond (72, 70, 71).

Two-time DP World Tour winner Shubhankar Sharma (68, 74, 74), Manu Gandas (70, 73, 73), Gaganjeet Bhullar (75, 73, 68) and Sachin Baisoya (75, 69, 72) shared the 28th spot at even par.

Shiv Kapur (75, 73, 69) and Kartik Sharma (74, 73, 70) were tied 37th, while Yuvraj Sandhu (70, 71, 77) was tied 42nd, and SSP Chawrasia (75, 73, 71) and S Chikkarangappa (75, 69, 75) were also inside the top 50 at three-over.

Thailand Classic runner-up Paul recovered from a bogey-bogey start to reel off successive birdies from 6th to 8th and made the turn at one-under. He parred the holes from 10th to 15th before signing off with a bogey and birdie at 16th and 17th for a 71.

“With a five-shot lead, I knew there was still 36 holes to go. I obviously didn’t get off to the best start but I just tried to focus on myself,” Paul said.

“There’s so much golf left yet. I just tried to stay patient. I know on this course you’re going to get some bad breaks here and there. Six, seven, eight I had a couple of nice birdies and then played pretty solid on the back nine.

“I hit a couple of great putts but they just seemed to slip by. Had some lip-outs from around eight feet, sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t, it’s not in my control.

“Short game is my strength, I would say. I gave myself a lot of chances and sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t. I just tried to stay positive.”