Jakarta: Gaganjeet Bhullar, Arjun Atwal and Himmat Rai stayed in top-15, but India’s top stars in the first two rounds, S Chikkarangappa and Jeev Milkha Singh, had a rough day as they slipped down at the BNI Indonesian Masters golf tournament here Saturday.
Bhullar (70), co-leader on first day, but dropping to T-14 in second was T-13, as were Atwal (69) and Rai (69). But Chikka (73) dropped from T-third to T-22, while Jeev (78) plummeted from T-7th to T-56th.
Other Indians had a mixed day and they included Anirban Lahiri (71) in T-31st at four-under, Chiragh Kumar (73) and Rahil Gangjee (71) at T-42nd, Shiv Kapur (72) at T-52nd, Jyoti Randhawa (74) at T-56th and Abhinav Lohan (75) at T-63rd.
At the top, baby-faced Poom Saksansin of Thailand fired a flawless seven-under-par 65 to seize the third round lead. The 23-year-old Poom made a surprise charge up the leaderboard to lead by two shots on 13-under-par 203 from Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura (68) and Kalem Richardson of Australia (69) at the USD 750,000 Asian Tour event.
Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, a three-time Asian Tour number one, birdied the closing two holes for a 69 to tie in fourth place on 206 alongside Marcus Fraser (70) of Australia, who needs a victory at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club to overtake Scott Hend on the Order of Merit. Poom will enter the final round as the leader for only the second time in his career on the Asian Tour after leading in the 2014 Queen’s Cup in Thailand before finishing second.
Press Trust of India
