Five years ago at the Altis Open PGTI event at the Eagleton resort, the leader group comprised of three city golfers — C. Muniyappa, Anirban Lahiri and S. Chikkarangappa, an amateur among the threesome in what eventually turned out to be Muniyappa’s big break.
On Friday, the latter two will start the final round in a similar fashion, with both of them fighting for a landmark win in their careers at the PGTI Eagleburg Open golf tournament.
While Lahiri, with a healthy five-stroke lead will look to end his title drought at home, Chikka, currently placed third and six strokes adrift of his good friend, will seek his maiden crown.
And the man who can stand between the two and play the party-popper is Sanjay Kumar.
On Thursday, as the sun played hide and seek for a better part of the day, overnight leader Lahiri, on the strength of his splendid show, shot an eight-under 64 to go five clear of Sanjay.
Lahiri was off to a rollicking start, sinking two birdies on the trot with his approach shots on both the occasions landing close to the cup. Over the next seven holes, the 26-year-old missed some easy putts, some very short, but he did well to save pars.
On the ninth, when his birdie lipped out, the Bengaluru-based golfer lost momentum — for a brief while — and even dropped his putter. At the turn, Sanjay with his good iron play had three birdies on the last three holes to go even with Lahiri.
Lahiri, who last week won the PGTI event in Pune, began his onward journey with a bang, holing in a 18-feet eagle on the par-5 10th hole to wrestle back the lead, which he built on steadily thereafter. By now Lahiri’s putter was on fire and the eagle was followed by six more birdies.
While most things went right for Lahiri, the grey spots emerged on the 12th and 16th holes. On both occasions, an error in judgment of the line cost Lahiri a stroke each, especially on the 16th where the Bengalurean, who finished at 17-under 199 admonished himself loudly. Back-to-back birdies on the last two holes, however, made up for the blemishes. Lahiri said, “My putter came to my rescue today. I missed a lot of putts on the front nine. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and I’m excited to be playing alongside Chikka.”
Playing in a group ahead of his city-mate, Chikka whose card was chequered with one eagle, six birdies and two-dropped shots took his three-day tally to 11-under 205.
Day 1 joint leaders Rahil Gangjee and Arshpreet Thind were placed fourth and fifth, respectively.