Aman’s domination continues on day 3

March 13, 2014: Aman Raj continued to dominate the proceedings as he held a four-shot lead going into the final round of the Delhi NCR Cup being played at the Delhi Golf Club. In the third round played here on Thursday, the Patna lad submitted a card of one-over 73 for a 54-hole total of 216 to emerge as the tournament leader.

Bangalore lad Udayan Mane shot a third successive 74 to be in hunt with a total of 222. Chasing him as Feroz Singh Garewal, lying just a shot behind. Simarjeet Singh was fourth at 224, Jaibir Singh shot the best round of the tournament thus far with a card of 3-under 69 to be tied for the fifth position along with the defending All India Open Amateur champion Pratap Atwal at 225. Varoon Parmar was in the seventh position at 226 while Spaniard Ramos Joa shared the eighth position with Vikram Rana and Arshad Ali at 231.

[highlight] I do have the advantage but you never know until the last hole, said Aman [/highlight]

Aman suffered an early set back when he began with back to back bogeys on the second and third. However, he resurrected the situation while making two birdies in the next three holes. Going on the attack the 18-year-old BBA student met with mixed luck as he made a bogey-birdie finish on the seventh and eighth respectively and turned with a level par card. On the back nine, a birdie on the 14th was sandwiched between bogeys on the 11th and 16th.

“It was tough to get back after a shaky start. I did try to experiment but did not get the desired result hence I chose to go by the book,” said Aman who carries a cool head on his shoulders. “I do have the advantage but you never know until the last hole,” added the leader.

Meanwhile Jaibir made an ominous start making a bogey on the opening hole. However he made it the only blemish of the day as he made birdies on the 4th, 7th, 9th and 16th to end up with 69.

Top scores after 54 holes

216 Aman Raj (70, 73, 73); 222 Udayan Mane (74, 74, 74); 223 Feroz Singh Garewal (75, 75, 73); 224 Simarjeet Singh (79, 70, 75); 225 Jaibir Singh (81, 75, 69), Pratap Atwal (76, 73, 76); 226 Varoon Parmar (81, 71, 74); 231 Ramos Joa (82, 76, 73), Vikram Rana (78, 78, 75), Arshad Ali (79, 75, 77); 232 Jairam Bharadwaj (85, 71, 76), Ajit Rawat (74, 75, 83); 233 Trishul Chinnappa (78, 77, 78), Kurush Heerjee (78, 74, 81)