October 19, 2013. Rahil Gangjee’s brilliant bogey free round of 66 on Saturday has shot him to four position on leaderboard behind Australia’s Scott Hend and Siddikur of Bangladesh at Venetian Macau Open.
“I’ve been trying to play the back nine better and today I accomplished that. The front nine is easier and I said if I could get from 10 to 14 in par, I would be happy. I did that today. And a bogey free round today which I’ve just realized that. It’s good, Gangjee said at the end of third round.
“I kind of put everything together today. It was decent driving, decent iron shots and I made some putts. That was the key today. There were no bad shots,” he added.
[highlight] I definitely want to hit my irons better tomorrow. That puts you in position to make putts and you can make a lot of putts here [/highlight]
India’s Anirban Lahiri too showed some grit as he finished his round tied 11th with four-under-68. Arjun Atwal, returning on Asian tour with four-under 68, was placed along with lahiri. Youngster Chirag Kumar ended his third round tied 16th after carding three-under- 68. Other Indian golfers, SSP Chowrasia (72 72 69) is tied 32nd, Shankar Das with a score of two-over 71 is placed 40th along with defending champion Gaganjeet Bhullar who finished his third round two-under 72.
Kolkata golfer, Gangjee saw steady rise in three rounds to enter Sunday’s round with a score of 206(73 67 66) to vie for third place along with – Ernie ELS (RSA) 71-65-69, Daisuke KATAOKA (JPN) 71-66-69, BAEK Seuk-hyun (KOR) 71-65-70.
Going into the final round, Rahil wants to keep his focus right.
“I’m not going to be thinking about it. Try to do this again tomorrow. I’m enjoying it here this week. I’ve got my old buddy Arjun Atwal here and we’ve been hanging out.
I definitely want to hit my irons better tomorrow. That puts you in position to make putts and you can make a lot of putts here. You need to put yourself in position. I always do look at the leaderboard as much as I always don’t want to,” Gangjee said.
Australian Scott Hend put on a masterclass with a blistering eight-under-par 63 to open up a four-shot lead over Bangladeshi Siddikur after the third round of the Venetian Macau Open on Saturday.
Big-hitting Hend, who has won twice already this season, charged up the leaderboard with an eagle, seven birdies against a lone bogey for a three-day total of 12-under-par 201 in the US$800,000 Asian Tour event.
Report: Rajlakshmi Retesh
