The moving day of the $4 million DP World India Championship saw Eugenio Chacarra surge to the top after an incomplete Round 3, while Tommy Fleetwood and Gregorio De Leo carded the best overall scores among those who completed their rounds on Saturday.
New Delhi: Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra in action. (PTI)
Fleetwood shot an error-free 4-under while De Leo fired five birdies and an eagle to go with a solitary bogey to record 6-under for the day. Both aggregated 9-under for the clubhouse lead.
Chacarra scorched the greens for the second successive day, carding 4-under—14-under for the tournament—after playing 11 holes of Round 3 on the humid day. When play was suspended at 5:44 PM due to darkness, the Spaniard held a two-shot lead over Joost Luiten (12 holes) and Angel Hidalgo (11 holes).
The 4-hour 50-minute delay caused by torrential rains on the opening day has had a domino effect on the scheduling, with Round 2 ending a little after noon on Day 3. Players teed off for the third round barely 30 minutes after completing the second round, putting their fitness, focus and consistency to test.
The cut fell at even par with 77 in a field of 144 with six Indians out of 27 progressing to the money rounds. Twenty six players completed their rounds while 51 had DNFs to their name. Play will restart at 06:35 AM on Sunday while Round 4 will be a two-tee start not before 09:15 AM.
Chacarra rose to 10-under-par 134 despite a late bogey to take the lead after the end of Round 2. His record in India includes one win and two other top-5 finishes in four previous appearances. He was T-26 at this event last year.
Currently placed second on the Race to Dubai rankings, Chacarra has made 23 cuts in 27 starts on the DP World Tour this year. His eight top-10s include two wins, and he was T-2 at Open de Espana last week, missing out on the trophy by one shot to Grant Forrest.
His broken toe still healing, Chacarra sank seven birdies in Round 2. “It’s nice when you’re at the top but there is a lot of golf left still. But I like where I’m at. I like where my game is. I need to control what I can control, and that’s my target for the next couple of rounds,” he said after Round 2 where he carded 5-under.
He added: “I just play to win. I love winning. I love being in contention on Sunday. That’s what I play every week for, you have a chance to win the tournament the last nine holes on Sunday. There is a lot of golf left still. But, yeah, I like where I’m at. I like where my game is. I need to control what I can control, and that’s my target for the next couple rounds. I need to get my momentum going and hopefully I can keep doing that.”
The 26-year-old walked the talk in style. Teeing off from the front nine in the penultimate round, he got going with a birdie first up. Birdies also arrived on the 4th, 6th, and 7th holes while Chacarra saved pars on the rest to sign off the day amidst generous applause from the patrons and players.
Birdie on the par 3 seventh would have brought him great delight, where a 185-yard tee shot brought him on the green and Chacarra proceeded to nail a 41-feet putt. A gentle shrug and a few handshakes is how he celebrated it even as the crowd gasped in collective awe. Tournament’s official website recorded it as his best putt of the week.
The birdie on the sixth wasn’t too bad either. A strong 246-yard tee shot found the fairway and an accurate approach shot got him within 12 feet to the pin, which he holed.
Defending champion Fleetwood’s round was bookended by birdies. The first tee saw him hit a 231-yard drive and the second shot placed him 40-feet from the pin. The Englishman missed his putt for eagle but proceeded to birdie from the ninth to get his round going. A 34-feet birdie putt on the par 4 fourth was followed by pars till the 16th hole before Fleetwood hit birdies on the 17th and 18th to set himself nicely for the title defence.
Fleetwood’s standout feature of the day was his accuracy; he rarely missed the fairways and the approach shots routinely placed him on the greens.
Om Prakash Chouhan was still the best Indian on the leaderboard at 5-under. The 40-year-old completed all his three rounds and was tied-30th following a round of 1-under that included two birdies and a bogey.
“My body was feeling very tight after playing 36 holes, but I stayed focussed. I’ve played here many times, so I know how to plan my way around the course and where to position the ball. That experience has helped me,” Chouhan said.
The star Indian in the second round was Yuvraj Sandhu (75-68), who had seven birdies in his last 10 holes, after being 3-over through the first seven holes. He had six birdies on his back nine as he rallied from his first-round 75.
Anirban Lahiri, Shiv Kapur, Karandeep Kochhar, and current PGTI Order of Merit leader Saptak Talwar made the cut as well.
