Noida's Amardip Sinh Malik emerged top contender going into the final round of the 14th TATA Open as he held on to his overnight lead with a steady one-under-70 in the third round.
Malik's three-day total stood at 13-under-200 at the Rs. 75 lakh event being played at the Golmuri Golf Course. There was a four-way tie for second place between Panchkula's Angad Cheema, Noida's Vikrant Chopra, Mukesh Kumar of Mhow and Bengaluru's C Muniyappa, the quartet snapping at the leader's heels at 11-under-202.
Amardip Sinh Malik (65-65-70), the overnight leader by one shot, stretched his lead to two strokes on Saturday after a hard-fought 70 that featured seven birdies, four bogeys and a double-bogey. Malik struggled till the turn as he could pick up only two birdies against four bogeys. He found the hazard on the third for the second successive day and attacked the flag for a chip-in on the sixth but ended up dropping another shot there.
Amardip sank birdie putts from seven to 10 feet on the 10th and 11th to get his round back on track. However, those gains were neutralized when his erratic tee shot on the 12th landed out of bounds and resulted in a double-bogey. The 30-year-old then rallied with birdies on three of the remaining six holes.
Malik landed it within inches of the pin from 120 yards out to tap-in for birdie on 13. He collected two more birdies with 15-feet conversions on the 15th and 16th. He could've gone lower had he drained a five-footer on the closing 18th.
Angad Cheema had the rare distinction of making two eagle-twos in the same round en route his 67 on Saturday. Cheema, a winner on the PGTI in 2013, holed his approach from 131 yards for eagle on the 10th and followed that up with a chip-in eagle from 25 yards on the 12th. He also double-bogeyed on the 15th after landing his tee shot into the hazard.
Vikrant Chopra and Mukesh Kumar, like Cheema, also fired scores of 67 to climb from overnight tied ninth to tied second. C Muniyappa shot a 69 to make it a four-way tie for second place.
Delhi golfers Honey Baisoya and Vinod Kumar were in joint sixth along with Chadigarh's Sujjan Singh at 10-under-203. Baisoya's bogey-free seven-under-64 was the best score of the day.
Abhishek Jha of Bengaluru, the round one leader, was a further shot back in ninth place.
Defending champion Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow occupied 16th position at six-under-207.
Jamshedpur's Karan Taunk was tied 37th at one-under-212.
