Khalin Joshi was well rewarded for his patient and tidy play as he carded a four-under 68 to move to tied sixth at the CIMB Niaga Indonesian Masters here today.
Joshi was now in sight of his first career Top-10 on the Asian Tour. Joshi, a rookie on Asian Tour, is now one-under 215, but is seven shots behind former World No.1 Lee Westwood (65).
Rashid Khan (69) was lying tied 21st, while Abhijit Chadha (73) and Angad Cheema (71) were tied 46th and Chiragh Kumar (77) was tied 63rd.
Westwood's superb play after a frustrating front nine of even par 36 saw him card seven-under 29 for the back nine with an eagle and five birdies in a superb six-hole run from 12th to 17th holes.
Westwood now has a three-day total of eight-under-par 208 to establish a five-shot lead going into the final round at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club.
Thailand's Namchok Tantipokhakul carded a 71 to tie for second with Denmark's Thomas Bjorn and Korea's Y.E. Yang on matching 213 total at the US$750,000 Asian Tour event. Joshi parred his first seven holes before holding birdie putts on eighth and ninth. He added a third on 14th and rounded off with a fourth birdie on 18th.
Rashid, winner of two Asian Tour titles last year, made amends for his second round of 79 with five birdies and two bogeys and a card of 69 to move to tied 21st.
Chadha, who had 67-82 in his first two rounds carded 73 but was languishing in 46th place.
It was a tale of two different nines for Westwood, the double CIMB Niaga Indonesian Masters champion, who had started the day in seventh place. The Englishman turned in 36 after mixing one birdie and one bogey.
However a stunning eagle-three on 12 lifted the world number 33 to the top of the leaderboard.
"I was struggling for a bit of momentum around the front-nine as I found it hard to read the greens. That eagle from about 25 feet really got me going and I went on to birdie the next five holes," said Westwood.
Five successive birdies from 13 then saw him sprint away from the chasing pack, giving him a commanding advantage before the final round beckons.
"Nobody was really doing anything around the front-nine. I was sort of plodding along and even-par till 11 and only two behind then. But I managed to have a good run after that and stamp a bit of authority when nobody was doing it," said Westwood.
With a hat-trick of titles in sight, Westwood is determined to make his visit to Jakarta another enjoyable one.
"I've been here twice and I won both times so I like to keep that going. I've never been beaten before so I'm going in with a big chance tomorrow," said Westwood.
Despite Westwood's healthy lead, Bjorn believes he still has a chance to dent the Englishman's title aspirations.
"I haven't been playing particularly well. But I managed to scramble my way around. It's very much in his hands but I'll still give a go and see how it goes.
