This must surely be one of the toughest two rounds I have played in quite some time now and the scores naturally were rather disappointing to say the least.
Making an early exit from any tournament is never fun, more so if it happens to be a tournament that means a lot to you, like the Hero Indian Open means to me. Well, its done and dusted and I can only hope that I can negotiate this course better the next time around.
There were less than a dozen players in red numbers, so the tournament is still very wide open. By the time Saturday ended, more than half the players who had made the cut were yet to finish the third round. But Chawrasia was still in shared lead alongside Eddie Pepperell and Carlos Pigem, four-under through 11 in third round, while Gavin Green, six-under through 17, was one behind.
S.S.P., whose love for the Hero Indian Open, is well documented, finished his second round on Friday to take the sole clubhouse lead. Pepperell and Malaysian Danny Chia joined Chawrasia.
Pepperell had a brilliant finish with three birdies in his last four holes and Chia who played around 15 holes of his second round in the morning, also ended at five-under to make it a three-way lead.
At no stage is any player or score safe. Disaster and danger lurks at every corner. Learning this the hard way was Chia. He first moved into sole lead at six-under with a birdie on the first hole and then racked up a big number early in the third round, with a nine on par-4 second. From six-under he crashed to one-under and will now rely on his mental strength to make a comeback.
This morning there was much speculation as to where the cut would come. It finally did at six-over and quite a few big names fell by the wayside.
And a few like Anirban Lahiri virtually willed himself to find a place in with a clutch birdie or two in crucial stages at the end. In the third round, he lifted himself by being three-under through 16 holes. Then there were some like Pigem, Scott Jamieson, Gregory Havret and Green, who made big moves with some early birdies in the third round.
