Himmat Rai bounced back from a disappointing start of two bogeys in three holes by carding five birdies in the next 11 holes to finish at three-under 69 on day three in the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament today.
That helped Rai, a former Asian Tour winner, to rise from overnight 35th to tied 22nd.
Rai had rounds of 70 and 71 on first two days and he is now at six-under 210 for 54 holes and nine shots behind leader, Singapore's Lam Chih Bing who fired a sizzling seven-under-par 65 to grab a share of third round lead with overnight leader Sutijet Kooratanapisan of Thailand.
Starting the round with a three-shot deficit, Lam stayed bogey-free in his last 36 holes, highlighted by 10 birdies and one eagle, for a one-shot lead on 15-under-par 201 total with Sutijet, who signed for a 68, at the USD 100,000 Asian Development Tour (ADT) event.
Michael Tran of Vietnam and Thailand's Panuwat Muenlek shared third place after carding second consecutive 66s and 67s respectively while American Jarin Todd stayed a further shot back in fifth place following a 69 at the Damai Indah Golf BSD course.
Australian Jordan Sherratt (66), Thailand's Atthaphon Sriboonkaew (67) and Gyeongjun Lee (67) of Korea shared sixth on 204 while defending champion James Byrne of Scotland fought his way back into top-10 after capping his best efforts of a 66 to lie at tied ninth position.
