Macau, 14 Oct: Gaganjeet Bhullar, India’s most successful player on the Asian Tour, returned a card of five-under 66 to be tied 10th with five others at the end of round three at the SJM Macao Open here on Saturday.
A former champion at this event, Bhullar, who has three top-5 finishes in the last four starts on the Tour, had a three-putt bogey on Par-5 12th, as he also holed six birdies to aggregate 11-under 202 at 71-hole course.
Bhullar is, however, 11 shots behind Australian table-topper Min Woo Lee, who was on fire, adding 65 to 62-64 from his first two rounds to get to 22-under.
Second-placed Poom Saksansin (64) of Thailand is 20-under, followed by Korea’s Jaewoong Eom (65) at 18-under.
As for the other Indians, Honey Baisoya was also tied at tenth after a Round of 69, which followed 68-65 in the first couple of rounds.
Ajeetesh Sandhu, who opened the week with 63, shot 70 in the second round and repeated that in the third to be T-16, while S Chikkarangappa (70-67-70) is 6-under and T-39th with Kartik Sharma, who after 66-65 dropped with 76 in the third round.
Angad Cheema (67-70-71) is T-48 Yashas Chandra (70-68-73) is T-58.
Bhullar was 3-under for the front nine and went 4-under with a birdie on the 11th before he dropped his lone bogey of the day on Par-5 12th. He made up with birdies on the 15th and 18th for 66.
Baisoya had five birdies against three bogeys, two of which came on the first and second, but he recovered well.
While Min Woo was superb in his 65, Poom went one better, with an impressive 64 at the Macau Golf and Country Club followed by Korea’s Jaewoong Eom (65). He had a brilliant eagle on the 18th.
New Zealand’s Ben Campbell (68) and Meenwhee Kim (69) from Korea are four strokes further adrift, with both tied at fourth. (PTI)