Vikram closes the gap on Rashid

On a day when the wind went up at the Chandigarh Golf Club, so did the scores. A steady breeze through the day and tough pin placements meant that no player in the field was able to break par. But as the round drew to a close, the protagonists still remained the same and the stage is set for a two way battle on the final day between Vikram Rana and Rashid Khan. Rashid will go into the last round with a two stroke lead but if the conditions remain as difficult as they were today then we could see some changes at the top. Vikram got off to an inauspicious start after three putting from a distance of a little over two feet on the first hole. A triple bogey on the first and a bogey on the par 5 second seemed to indicate that he would fade away leaving Rashid lonely on top of the leaderboard. He said 8220;I still don8217;t know what happened on the first and I am searching for answers. Although it was a short putt the ball lipped out on both occasions8221;. But he regained ground with an eagle from the centre of the fairway on the short par 4 sixth and reduced the deficit to one stroke. 8220;I just hit a good shot there I guess. It got me back in to the round and kept me in the thick of the action8221;.

A final score of four over 76 was still not that bad considering he is trailing the leader by just two strokes behind and three shots clear of the next best player in the field. Abhinav Lohan was the only one who left the course without any battle wounds as he returned a card of even par 72, which moved him up to third spot and in to the last group for the final round. Abhinav Lohan who had a good outing at the LG Golden Greens Amateur where he was in contention for his first win on tour fell back on the last two days. A good round today has given him another chance and he would be looking to make the most of this opportunity.

Local lad Aman Guron who would be hoping to keep the LG Samarvir Sahi Amateur trophy within Chandigarh, had an off day and slid down the leaderboard. With 18 holes left it remains to be seen if Rashid can pocket another title on tour or whether one of the men behind can stop his run.

Scores:

1 Rashid Khan 218; 2 Vikram Rana 220; 3 Abhinav Lohan

223; 4 Angad Cheema, 5 Karan Vasudeva 224; 6 Samresh Sardar 227;

7 Aman Guron 228; 8 Kanishk Madan, 9 Manav Das, 10 Pawan Kumar,11 Gagan Verma 229.