Jamshedpur: Mhow based Mahipat Singh matched his previous round of one-over par 72 to extend his lead at the top of the leaderboard to two strokes after 54 holes of stroke play of Tata Steel All India Sub Junior & Feeder Tour Final 2014 at the Par – 71 Golmuri Golf Course here.
Kolkata’s Udayjit Bhalotia stormed back into contention with the best card of the day of one-under par 70 to take his place in the leader group for the final round at ten-over par 223. Joining him is Rajkot lad Jay Pandya who is a further two strokes behind in third place after a two-over par 73 third round followed by Rohit Kumar Bouri of Jamshedpur and Chennai’s Bala Mitran in tied fourth place at fourteen-over par 227.
Mahipat, who began with a one stroke lead made three straight pars on the opening holes before hitting consecutive birdies on the 4th and 5th holes to go two under par for the day. A missed par putt on the 7th hole set him back to one-under par for the day going out. He made bogeys on the 10th, and the 12th holes along with a double bogey on the 17th but could only recover two strokes with birdies on the 11th and 18th Par 5 holes and finish at a gross of eight-over par 221.
Meanwhile Udayjit played a bogey free front nine of two-under par with birdies on the 1st and 4th holes. He began the back nine with a bogey on the Par 3 10th hole and went back to two-under par for the day by rolling in a birdie on the 13th hole. He couldn’t putt out for par on the 17th hole but a par on the 18th hole was enough to place him second.
Mahipat reflecting on missed opportunities to put more daylight between him and the challengers said, “In the end I’m satisfied to extend my lead but the course was set up for an under-par round today.” He added, “I’ll have to improve tomorrow to make sure I take home the win.”
Delhi’s Prateek Malik also managed to extend his lead in Category B with a round of six-over par 77 to seven strokes. Kolkata’s Rajvir Randhawa trails him in second place followed by Pune lad Kaustubh Mishra a further stroke behind at twenty three-over par 236.
Category C lead changed hands as Harshjeet Sethie of Delhi carded a second consecutive five-over 76 to sit atop by five strokes. Rajib Ali of Kolkata is placed second followed by overnight leader Tanmay Rakheja from Delhi who shot a dismal fifteen-over 86 to be nine strokes behind the leader.
Category D Boys and Girls played out their first round today with Delhi’s Shubham Jaglan leading the Boys event by three strokes after carding an eight-over 79 followed by city mates Aryan Kaila (82) in second and Tushar Pannu in third place at 84. Delhi Girls similarly dominated the leaderboard with Rakshita Singh (87) leading Hitaashee Bakshi (89) and Khushi Hooda in third place.
Top Scores:
Category A & B (after 54 holes):
221 Mahipat Singh (77,72,72); 223 Udayjit Bhalotia (72,81,70); 225 Jay Pandya (76,76,73); 227 Rohit Kumar Bouri (75,77,75), Bala Mitran (76,76,75); 228 S. Karan (81,77,70), Rohan Rajware (76,75,77), Prateek Malik (77,73,78); 231 Mayank Thakur (78,73,78), 232 K Pawan Kalyan (79,79,74), Bishwam Ghosh (77,77,78)
Category B (after 54 holes):
228 Prateek Malik (77,73,78); 235 Rajvir Randhawa (79,77,79); 236 Kaustubh Mishra (78,79,79); 238 Aryan Agarwal (82,77,79); 239 Aaryomaan Bose (82,80,77); 242 Chinmaya Mahajan (78,82,82); 243 Rahul Ajay (83,83,77); 245 Aryan Roopa Anand (85,83,77)
Category C (after 36 holes):
152 Harshjeet Sethie (76,76); 157 Rajib Ali (79,78); 161 Tanmay Rakheja (75,86); 162 Saurav Rathi (81,81); 163 Varun Kumar Murugan (83,80); 164 Krishiv Tekchandani (82,82); 165 Aryaman Mahant (82,83)
Category D (after 18 holes):
79 Shubham Jaglan; 82 Aryan Kaila; 84 Tushar Pannu; 85 Kaushal Bagrodia; 86 Suveer Kapoor; 88 Manjot Singh
Girls Category D (after 18 holes):
87 Rakshita Singh; 89 Hitaashee Bakshi; 91 Khushi Hooda; 92 Sneha Singh; 95 Anusha Borkar
