Thursday at the PGTI's Kolkata Classic saw Shamim Khan continue his good form with another 68 as he opened up a gap of 3 shots at the top of the leaderboard.
Shamim started the day in second place, a shot behind Mukesh Kumar but quickly changed that statistic with a birdie on the 2nd hole folowed by an amazing eagle on the fourth hole.
The only blemish on his card was the lone bogey on the 7th hole but he made up by shooting a bogey-free 2 under back nine. He posted a score of 4 under to take his tournament total to 10 under. The shot of the day came from Shamim when he holed from 110 yards on the par 5 – fourth hole.
Shamim said after his round, “My driving hasn’t been good at all this week and I’m only on the top courtesy of my short game. I have improved my score on a daily basis but being at the top right now isn’t feeling that great.
“My start today was good and it laid the foundation for a steady round. I started with a birdie on the 2ndand then made an eagle on 4. The bogey on 7 got me back to 2 under but it was good to birdie 12 and 15 to shoot back to back 68’s.
“12 was a crucial hole but as I said I’m struggling with my driving and I had to hit a lot of recovery shots today. My chipping and iron game has saved me so far this week but tomorrow finding the fairways will be important.
“Tomorrow will be a big day and I can’t say yet that I’m in a comfortable position to win. Anything can happen in the first nine holes, guys can make up shots and suddenly it can be wide open but I feel if I give it my best tomorrow then I will taste victory once again.
“My mental approach has been strong this week but I will need to concentrate on my driving tomorrow. If I want to win tomorrow then all the aspects of my game will have to come good.”
His closest competitor was Mukesh Kumar, the overnight leader, who shot an even par-72 and thus slipped to second place at the Rs 40 lakh event.
Mukesh who hasn't won an event at RCGC in over a decade, started sloppily as he dropped three shots in the opening five holes. He couldn't get the putter working as he struggled to convert a series of close birdie looks.
The tour veteran said, “I didn’t start off very well, I missed two birdie opportunities on the opening two holes and then what followed was worse.
“Making bogeys on 3 holes on the trot never does any good to your card but the bounce back birdie on 6 was good. Then I gained some confidence and I thought to myself that there’s still a lot of golf remaining and maybe a recovery could be made. Then when I birdied the 10th, I started feeling a bit more comfortable, as I was only 1 over. 1 over wasn’t too bad considering the start I had. When I birdied the 15th and 16th holes, I felt way better about my round.
“But then I somehow managed to end badly by finding the hazard on 17 and drop back to level par for the day.
“I wasn’t concentrating on my putting today at all and I missed 3-4 birdie opportunities from inside 6 feet. I wasn’t really disturbed or under pressure by the good round that Shamim was on. It’s only myself to blame as I was over compensating with the lines on my putts and I didn’t have a good day on the greens as a result.
“It’s not going to be an easy day for either myself or Shamim. If I can claw back a stroke or two on the front nine, it’ll be all to play for. The last 5-6 holes around here are challenging and overall the course is tough, so I think the front nine will be vital tomorrow.”
Kolkata’s Shankar Das was the best placed local player after Round 3. He tied the day’s best score of 68 and moved up 11 places to share third position with Sri Lankan Mithun Perera (70) at 4 under par-212 for the tournament.
SSP Chawrasia went on a run of 4 birdies in his final 5 holes to make amends to what was a disappointing round until then. He finished the day with a level par round and occupied tied - fifth position, seven strokes off the front, at three-under-213 along with Sanjeev Kumar (70) of Lucknow and Noida’s Gaurav Pratap Singh (71).
