Shamim soars into lead

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Shamim Khan

Delhi golfer Shamim Khan carded a resolute four-under 68 to grab the lead in the penultimate round of the PGTI Players Championship at the Oxford Golf and Country Club in Pune on Thursday. After 54 holes, Shamim’s had a total of 10-under 206 thanks to his brilliant third round show.

Rahil Gangjee of Kolkata returned the day’s best score of five-under 67 to be placed second. Gangjee was breathing down Shamim’s neck with a nine-under 207 total.
Kolkata’s Shankar Das, the overnight joint leader, slipped to the third position after returning a one-under 71 on the day. His total now stands at eight-under 208.
Further behind was three-time Asian Tour champion Anirban Lahiri (70-68-71) on seven-under 209, while Sri Lankan Mithun Perera (70-70-70) was placed fifth.
Delhi’s Rashid Khan, who moved to the top with a round of 67 on Wednesday, slipped to tied sixth at five-under-211 after a disppointing two-over 74 on Thursday. He shared the sixth place with fellow Delhi golfers Chiragh Kumar, Himmat Singh Rai and Vinod Kumar.
Shamim (71-67-68), tied third overnight, earned successive birdies on the fifth and sixth holes to move up the leaderboard. The 35-year-old reigning Rolex Rankings champion sank a 40-feet birdie putt on the fifth. A poor chip resulted in a bogey for Shamim on the seventh but he picked up a birdie on the ninth to make the turn at two-under. In his back-nine, he found birdies on the 13th, 14th, 17th and on the closing 18th against bogeys on the 11th and 15th.
“I had a steady first round but my game picked up from second round onwards. I’ve been putting much better and have also hit my irons closer over the last two days as compared to round one. I rate the sixth as a very tough hole since one can’t sight the fairway from the tee and the green is also very tight. I was therefore delighted to make a birdie on the sixth today. I’ve not been finishing my rounds well in the last few events. But I’ve managed to improve that aspect of my game this week,” said Shamim.