New Delhi: Japan’s Keita Nakajima produced a red-hot seven-under 65 to emerge leader by two shots after round three of the US$ 4 million DP World India Championship 2025 being played at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC), here on Saturday.
Nakajima (65-69-65), a former Indian Open champion, totaled 17-under 199 following his bogey-free effort on Saturday, to gain three spots from his overnight fourth position.
Keita’s closest rivals were Englishman Tommy Fleetwood (15-under 201) in second place and Irishman Shane Lowry (14-under 202) in third place.
The others chasing the leader were the quartet of American Brian Harman, Englishman Alex Fitzpatrick, New Zealander Daniel Hillier and Swede Jens Dantorp, all placed tied fourth at 13-under 203.
Among the other prominent names, Viktor Hovland of Norway was tied eighth at 12-under 204 while five-time Major winner, world no. 2 and reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland was tied 15th at 10-under 206.
Dhruv Sheoran (68-73-67) made big gains as a result of his third round of 67 to be the highest-placed Indian in tied 25th place at eight-under 208. Dhruv’s round consisting of five birdies and a bogey lifted him 16 spots from his overnight tied 41st position.
Shiv Kapur (70) and Shubhankar Sharma (71) were the next best Indians in tied 42nd place at five-under 211.
The other two Indians, Anirban Lahiri and Abhinav Lohan shot scores of 73, to end the day in tied 58th and tied 63rd positions respectively.
Dhruv Sheoran began the day on a high with a 40-feet birdie conversion on the second hole. Sheoran then made gradual progression as his terrific up and down from the rough on the eighth and an outstanding approach on the 11th also resulted in birdies.
Dhruv’s only bogey of the day came on the 12th but thereafter he made big gains once again with three birdie conversions from a range of seven to eight feet.
Dhruv said, “I was pretty calm today from the range itself. Then on the putting green my putts were rolling pure and my coach gave me a big thumbs up. I carried that confidence to the course and things worked out well for me.
“Me and my coach Rahul Bajaj have been spending a lot of time on the range. He analyzed a few movements that I could improve on. I then implemented those changes on the course. Once I saw things happening on the course under pressure, it gave me a huge boost.
“I was looking for a six-under at the start of the round today and got very close to my target. I was quite relaxed throughout the day and made a lot of putts. I’ve done really well with my 2-iron and 4-iron this week.”
Shubhankar Sharma had a bit of a struggle on the front-nine where he picked up two bogeys and a birdie. However, Shubhankar had a far better back-nine in comparison where he collected three birdies at the cost of a bogey.
Shiv Kapur was one-over for the day through 10 holes before he came back strong with birdies on his last three holes.
