Gangjee in contention for first Asian Tour title

Rahil Gangjee put himself in contention for his first Asian Tour title in six years, grabbing a share of the lead after a flawless three-under 69 in the penultimate round of the tri-sanctioned Avantha Masters Golf Tournament in Gurgaon on Saturday.

Gangjee, whose last Asian Tour triumph came in the Volkswagen Masters-China in 2004, took his three-day total to 11-under 205 for a six-way tie at the top.

Fredrik Andersson Hed (66), Darren Beck (70), Richard Bland (66), Yih-Shin Chan (72), Tetsuji Hiratsuka (70) and Barry lane (71) formed the rest of the leading pack at the DLF Golf and Country Club.

For the third successive day, Gangjee found birdies on the seventh and 18th holes besides picking up a shot on the third.

Among other Indians in fray, Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal brought home identical one-under 71s to total six-under 210 and four-under 212 respectively.

While Randhawa lies tied 29th, Atwal took a share of the 37th spot after three rounds.

Randhawa started off well, striking a birdie on the third hole and though a bogey on the fifth pulled him back, he more than made up for it with an eagle on the sixth to make the turn two-under before a poor back nine marred his card.

He dropped strokes on the 11th and 13th and parred the rest to slip down the leaderboard.

Atwal had a modest outing, picking up a couple of birdies against a lone bogey to drop three places.

Among other Indians, Digvijay Singh (73) and Ashok Kumar (75) lay at the bottom of the heap. While Digvijay was tied 54th at one-over overall, Ashok was a further couple of strokes down at tied 63rd.

Leading third round scores

205 - Richard Bland (ENG) 68-71-66, Fredrik Andersson Hed (SWE) 68-71-66, Rahil Gangjee (IND) 67-69-69, Tetsuji Hiratsuka (JPN) 73-62-70, Darren Beck (AUS) 70-65-70, Chan Yih-shin (TPE) 65-68-72, Barry Lane (ENG) 67-67-71

206 - Kwanchai Tannin (THA) 68-68-70, David Drysdale (SCO) 68-67-71, Andrew Dodt (AUS) 67-68-71

207 - Jeppe Huldahl (DEN) 71-70-66, Terry Pilkadaris (AUS) 68-71-68, Thaworn Wiratchant (THA) 67-73-67, Marcel Siem (GER) 64-73-70, Lin Wen-hong (TPE) 68-70-69, Darren Clarke (NIR) 71-66-70

Selected scores

208 - Lam Chih Bing (SIN) 67-68-74

210 - Jyoti Randhawa (IND) 72-67-71, Liang Wen-chong (CHN) 71-68-71