Chiragh Kumar showed great tenacity by hanging in even as Siddikur Rahman made his charge on the penultimate day of the Panasonic Open India 2015 at his favourite Delhi Golf Club course.
The 31-year-old Chiragh, who is still looking for his maiden Asian Tour triumph, after two second place finishes, one of them last month, kept grinding despite an extremely bumpy ride on Saturday. Starting three shots ahead of Mithun Perera, the local lad started with a double bogey on first – which gave him birdies on first two days – and then slumped with back-to-back bogeys on 11th and 12th. At that stage down to nine-under, he was even caught up by S Chikkarangappa (68).
The plucky Chiragh showed great courage as he birdied three in a row from 13th to 15th – his fourth hat-trick of birdies this week – before another bad tee shot on 17th cost him his third bogey of the day apart from the double on the first.
Siddikur, meanwhile, playing alongside Chiragh was steady like a rock. He felt he could have another couple of birdies, but the important thing was he was bogey-free in his card of 68. Starting the day five behind Chiragh, he had closed the gap to one.
Chikka, who had a bogey on the closing 18th, was tied third with Siddikur’s fellow Bangladeshi player, Zamal Hossain (70), who has never finished better than Top-20.
Thaworn Wiratchant, who is Asian Tour’s most successful winner with 18 titles, missed a bunch of birdies but still stayed in the hunt with a card of 69 and he was tied fifth with Mithun Perera, who had a nightmarish start with three bogeys in first four holes. Perera had five bogeys in all against three birdies for a 73 that pushed him down to seven-under 209.
A relieved Chiragh said, “I kept telling myself not to let the bad shots get to me. I kept grinding out until the very last hole. I stuck to my play and didn’t get defensive. You can’t let bad shots get to you.”
He added, “I stayed there and I fought hard. I’m not too unhappy with my result because the way I’ve been hitting the ball, it could have been worse. I made a bad swing on the 17th hole. I wasn’t swinging it good today. I don’t know if it was my alignment or my rhythm but it was a little off. I hope it will be better tommorrow. I hit some good shots on the back nine. I birdied 13 (four feet), 14 (nine feet) and 15 (12 feet) and that got my round together.”
Wiping the sweat off his brow, he added, “Right now, I’m glad the round is over. There’s always pressure. It depends on how you deal with the situation. The way I was playing, I’m happy with the score I came back with. I was all over the place today. I’m not disappointed; I’ll take it as a positive.”
Siddikur, ever smiling and cool, said, “This is one of my favourite golf courses and I really enjoy playing here. I’m happy with my game. I made a good birdie on hole 18. It was a given birdie from four feet. It is very important to keep your ball on the fairway. That’s the key to a good score.”
