MACAU: Swirling winds and tough scoring conditions saw Gaganjeet Bhullar’s four-shot lead cut down to just one but the seven-time Asian Tour winner hung in to keep his nose ahead in the race for the Macau Open.
Fellow Indian Ajeetesh Sandhu (71) and Taipei’s Hung Chien-yao (65) are on Bhullar’s heels now at nine-under.
While the 29-year-old Bhullar is chasing an eighth win on the region’s premier Tour, Sandhu is looking for a third victory in as many weeks.
Chien-yao returned with the day’s best score of 65 to share second place with Sandhu.
Other Indians in the fray — S Chikkarangappa (72) was tied-19th, Shubhankar Sharma (77) dropped to tied-24 along with Chiragh Kumar (73) and Rashid Khan (74).
Himmat Rai (74) was tied-57th, Khalin Joshi (79) was tied-61st and M Dharma (78) was tied-71st. Jyoti Randhawa retired in the third round.
“It was quite difficult out there. (It was) not the round that I wanted but there are still 18 more holes to go. I struggled a bit today. I hit the ball pretty good but not as good as I did the last two days. Overall, I think I hung in there,” said Bhullar.
The last time Bhullar held the 54-hole lead was also in Macau in 2012 and it was also by one shot and he went on to win the title. He bounced back from a wrist injury, suffered in 2014, and won the Shinhan Donghae Open and Indonesia Open in 2016.
Sandhu won his maiden Asian Tour title at the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship in Chinese Taipei, just a day before turning 29.
He followed up that victory with another play-off win at the Taiheiyo Club Challenge Tournament on the Japan Challenge Tour last week.
The 25-year-old Hung is chasing for a maiden win on Asian Tour. (AGENCIES)
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