Gurugram: Two equally creative long putts on the undulating 18th hole at either end of Saturday’s play in the $2.55mn Hero Indian Open DP World Tour event left one grimacing in dejection and the other beaming in satisfaction. It summed up how the demanding DLF Golf and Country Club course designed by nine-time Major winner Gary Player has rewarded and punished the field yet again.
It was Akshay Bhatia early in the day. Needing a birdie to make the cut at 4-over for the tournament, he sent his third shot on the par-five nicely snaking to rest about five feet from the pin. The next putt for the US player of Indian origin and Arnold Palmer Invitational champion showed how players have struggled to read the line, failed to perfect their pace, or often did both.
A par meant Bhatia stayed at five-over after an even-par 72. The biggest in-form player in the field was out before the day had warmed up.
About 10 hours later, Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra, having hit to the right fringe of the green and safely away from the water, sent his third shot, a nearly 40-foot putt, over the ridge and got it to stop about 10 feet past the pin. A two-putt for par rewarded his hard day’s work with a two-under 70, marking his third under-par score; the 26-year-old defending champion shot 67 and 69 in the previous rounds. He takes a solid 4-shot lead into the final day.
“There is a lot more golf to play,” Chacarra admitted, but he would be glad to know that five of the last seven winners were third round leaders. The tall Spaniard can become the fourth back-to-back winner in Indian Open history—only Japan’s Kenji Hosoishi (1967-68), Jyoti Randhawa (2006-07) and SSP Chowrasia (2016-17) have defended the title.
The overnight leader was three-under after 12 holes before back-to-back bogeys. But an excellent 10-foot par putt on the 15th halted that slide and a birdie on the 16th kept him ahead.
He had five birdies and three bogeys. Chacarra’s South African playing partner MJ Daffue, last week’s winner of the Indian tour event co-sanctioned by DP World Tour’s feeder series on the Classic course not far away, was tied second with England’s Alex Fitzpatrick—the 27-year-old younger brother of 2022 US Open champion Matt, who won the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship last week—after both carded even-par 72s. Alex is chasing his first win on the European tour. SA’s Casey Jarvis, who shot 64 on Friday, carded 75 to be in a three-way tie for sixth at 4-under.
David Law (70) was tied fourth at five-under with Germany’s Day 1 leader Freddie Schott (72), the Scotsman bogeying the final hole after needing four putts to navigate the 18th green. England’s Jack Senior shot the day’s best round (67) to be tied 10th at 2-under for the tournament. Italy’s 2018 Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari was T13 (72, 72, 71).
Only three Indians made the cut. Om Prakash Chouhan was T20 at one-over (73, 71, 73), 18-year-old Manoj T54 at 6-over (76, 70, 76) and Naveed Kshitij Kaul T63 at 9-over.
