Tata Steel PGTI Players Golf Championship: Shankar Das in the lead

Mysuru lad Yashas Chandra slips to 43rd place The seasoned Shankar Das of Kolkata made his presence felt with a third straight round of four-under-68 at the Rs. 30 lakh TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship Presented by Chandigarh Golf Club. Thirty-six-year-old Shankar now enjoys a one-shot lead at 12-under-204 ahead of the final round. Mysuru lad M.S. Yashas Chandra (JWGC) fared well, but slipped to the 43rd place with a round of 5-over-77 on day three to return with a three-day aggregate score of one-over-217 (69+71+77) and is placed tied 43rd in the placings. Greater Noida’s Sudhir Sharma, who was overnight tied fourth along with Shankar after setting a new course record on Wednesday, also moved up two spots in the penultimate round. Sudhir’s 69 on Thursday placed him second at 11-under-205. Bengaluru’s Trishul Chinnappa, the halfway leader, slipped to tied third as a result of his third round of 73. Chinnappa shared third place with Noida’s Gaurav Pratap Singh (71) at nine-under-207. Panchkula’s Angad Cheema was the highest placed among the Tricity golfers. Cheema (68) closed the day in tied 12th at five-under-211. The conditions during round three were unforgiving as it was the windiest day of the tournament and the breeze kept switching directions. The tough scoring conditions meant that only 17 players out of a total of 57 could break par on day three. Shankar Das (68-68-68), a seven-time winner on the PGTI, negotiated the conditions well to shoot the day’s joint best score and keep his card bogey-free. Das struggled to find greens in regulation but more than made up for that with his fine chipping and putting.