This has not been a very happy season for Sanjay Kumar. The 42-year-old finished 12th in the last event in Coimbatore and was mediocre in the earlier legs.
Thus, the seasoned pro from Lucknow had been keen to make a mark in the PGTI Cochin Masters at Nedumbassery and he did on Friday evening by grabbing the lead for a brief while at the CIAL Golf Club on Friday evening.
Sanjay thrived on three birdies as he moved ahead of overnight leader Rashid Khan after the seventh round. But Rashid, now a confident youngster after his recent maiden victory in the SAIL-SBI Open Asian Tour event, did not allow this to trouble him.
He produced a birdie on the club’s 17th hole — his second of the day after his 15th — to finish the penultimate day as a joint leader with Sanjay. While Sanjay shot a three-under-33, Rashid came up with a two-under-34 and the duo took their three-day tally to seven-under-101.
Three players — Gurgaon’s young Shubhankar Sharma and Sri Lankans Anura Rohana and K Prabagaran — shared the third spot with five-under-103.
“I was quite pleased with my bogey-free effort today since the wind came into play once again. My wedge shots were the best part of my game in round three,” said Sanjay who was tied for the second spot overnight. Rashid said he did not convert the chances that came his way.
“I had good opportunities but did not make use of them. The birdie on the 15th was good and I was pretty confident that I would make one more birdie on the last three holes,” said the 23-year-old, who knocked down a mammoth 30-footer for his first birdie on the 15th and made his second on the par-3 17th where his tee shot stopped just six feet from the flag.
The scores:
101: Rashid Khan (32-35-34) & Sanjay Kumar (33-35-33); 103: Shubhankar Sharma (33-37-33), K. Prabagaran (35-34-34), Anura Rohana (35-34-34).
