New Delhi, India, March 30: Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura showed his mental toughness by storming home with five birdies in his closing nine holes after carding an ugly triple-bogey on the eighth hole to stay close to third-round leaders American Julian Suri and England’s Callum Shinkwin at the Hero Indian Open on Saturday.

The Japanese will head into the final round two shots back of Suri and Shinkwin after he signed for a four-under-par 68 at the US$1.75 million event which is held at the DLF Golf and Country Club.

Suri and Shinkwin posted rounds of 71 and 68 respectively to take their place atop the leaderboard with their three-day total of 11-under-par 205.

Apart from that momentary blip on eight, Kawamura was consistent all day and thanks to his sharp-shooting driver where he only missed one fairway. The Japanese will be aiming to end a six-year title drought on the Asian Tour this week.

India’s S. Chikkarangappa kept the local hopes alive on moving day with seven birdies in his opening 13 holes. He seemed on course to break the course record set by compatriot Shubhankar Sharma last year until he dropped his first shot of the day on hole 17 after missing the green on his approach. Chikkarangappa would still finish with a commendable round of 66 to take tied-sixth place.

American Sihwan Kim and Australia’s Scott Hend lie a further shot back following their respective rounds of 67 and 74.

Did you know?

·       Masahiro Kawamura is currently placed sixth on the Habitat for Humanity Standings.

·       Residing in Yokkaichi City, Japan, Kawamura is aiming to end a six-year title drought on Tour since his last victory at the Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open in 2013.

·       The 25-year-old Kawamura finished tied-second at the Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open last May to earn his spot at the 147th Open.

·       The Japanese hit 13/14 fairways, 15/18 greens and totalled 28 putts.

·       Chikkarangappa claimed a two-shot victory at the Golconda Masters 2019 Powered By Telangana Tourism & Incredible India in February. Prior to that he also won the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational in November of last year on his local circuit.

·       The Bengaluru-born golfer played in his first National Open when he was a 15-year-old amateur golfer. His best finish at his country’s National Open was a tied-26th result in 2012.

·       He is a two-time winner on the Asian Development Tour (ADT). His last top-10 finish on Tour came at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open where he enjoyed a joint runner-up result and took home his career’s biggest prize purse of US$104,364.

·       Sihwan Kim was the highest-placed Asian Tour player at the Hero Indian Open last year with his third-place finish.

·       Kim’s score of 67 marks his personal-best round at the DLF Golf and Country Club. He shot a 68 in the final round last year.

·       The Korean-American hit 13 of 14 fairways, only missed four greens and totalled 27 putts.

·       Julian Suri is playing in just his second event this season after undergoing surgery on an abdominal hernia.

·       The American is of Indian descent and will be gunning for his first trophy on Indian soil after missing the cut in this event last year.

·       Callum Shinkwin turned professional in 2013 and will be looking to lift his maiden victory this week. 

Players’ Quotes:

Julian Suri (Usa) Third round 71 (-1), Total 205 (-11)

I think a couple of the mistakes I made today where after long waits on the tee box and that was quite a long wait on 18. No excuses, totally my fault and I need to compose myself better and I think that is a bit of a learning curve for me after being out of tournament golf for a while now.

You have to be on your game at all times. Any slip up or anything can be pretty penal. I am feeling good with my overall game despite 18 there, the game feels good. It would be great to win. It would be awesome with my family history, but you know, it’s going to be a grind out there, there are a lot of people in it, and I need to go and do what I am capable of.

Callum Shinkwin (Eng) Third round 68 (-4), Total 205 (-11)

My game plan was to just stay away from the bushes. It’s so tight out there so when I do have a chance to hit driver I’ll hit it. There were a few tricky pins out there today and I just stuck to my game plan and took the driver out when I needed to, or a two-iron if I needed to as well. It was a great ball-striking round which I am very happy about that too, just need more putts to drop. I just want to play as well as I can, if I do win that’s great, if I don’t then I know my time will come soon.

Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) Third round 68 (-4), Total 207 (-9)

I am very happy to have come back with another good round especially with how hard conditions were today. I had a good comeback and shot five-under-par in the back nine. Especially after the eight on hole eight.

I came into this week feeling confident because I have been hitting it well. So I was pretty aggressive today and using a lot of drivers off the tee. There were some big mistakes today but there were still a lot of good recovery shots.

On hole eight I hit a good tee shot, then I hit my first shot into the water. And hit another one into the water again. It was just two bad shots in a row and I had to force myself to forget about it pretty quick. I made a good up and down to save myself.

On hole 11 and hole 18 I made two good birdies because I used my driver off the tee and had two-putt birdies. Overall I am happy with my position and tomorrow I will be attacking the pins again.

 S. Chikkarangappa (Ind) Third round 66 (-6), Total 210 (-6)

Started with two birdies which gave me a good momentum. Overall, I was hitting the ball great and hit almost every fairway and made a lot of green-in-regulations today. I am very happy with the round. Seven birdies and one bogey, I’ll take that score on this course.

I’ve been having a good stretch since I won the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational, I think that was where it all started for me and it’s been going great. I am feeling good about my game and all parts of my game is going good.

I am in a good position right now and I just need to go out there and enjoy myself like how I have been doing for the past couple of months, just no expectations and play happy golf.

Sihwan Kim (Usa) Third round 67 (-5), Total 211 (-5)

It was good, I had a slow start but I just kept it on the greens and made some putts. First three holes were quite bad for me since I missed all three greens. But then I got the momentum going and just started hitting it a lot better.

On hole four I made a 15-footer for birdie to kick things off, and from there I had no bogeys so that was the hole that gave me the boost I needed. The greens are a lot softer this year so I could attack the pins more and it’s a lot less windy today and way hotter so the ball is going far.

Really happy with where I am, I could have made a lot more putts out there but five-under-par on this course is good.

Ends.