Ayer Keroh, Malacca; June 11: Malaysia’s S. Siva Chandhran (pic) charged into the joint third round lead at the PGM Melaka Classic with a battling two-under-par 70 in the third round on Saturday.
The reigning Asian Development Tour (ADT) number one sank four birdies against two bogeys at the Ayer Keroh Country Club to share the lead on seven-under-par 209 with Filipino Artemio Murakami and Chinese Taipei’s talent Hsu Chia-jen.
Murakami fired a 69 while Hsu, last year’s second ranked player on the ADT, battled to a 72 to ensure an exciting climax on Sunday in the RM180,000 (approximately US$60,000) event which is the fifth leg of this season’s ADT.
“I played quite solid but made a couple of mistakes for my bogeys. I turned in even par and then made a good birdie on 12 from about 10 feet which gave me some momentum.
“I managed to shoot two more birdies coming home against one bogey and it was especially nice to birdie the last from 12 feet for the joint lead,” said the slightly built Siva.
After battling Hsu all season last year, Siva knows he has a battle on his hands tomorrow. Hsu is chasing his first title while Murakami has won on the Asian Tour previously at the 2007 Iskandar Johor Open.
“Artemio and Hsu are solid players and I am sure it will be an interesting final round. I’ll need to play my best golf to win,” said Siva.
Malaysian prospect Mohd Iylia Jamil carded a tidy 70 to lurk one shot behind the leading trio while countryman M. Sasidaran, Japan’s Takafumi Miyase and Thailand’s Pongthep Jaewchumnanchao are a further stroke back on 207.
Leading third round scores
209 Artemio Murakami (PHI) 73-67-69, S. Sivachandhran 73-66-70, Hsu Chia-jen (TPE) 68-69-72
210 Mohd Iylia Jamil (MAS) 68-72-70
211 Pongthep Jaewchumnanchao (THA) 68-71-72, M. Sasidaran (MAS) 70-68-73, Takafumi Kawane (JPN) 70-68-73
212 Haziq Hamizan 72-71-69, Lin Kuan-po (TPE) 71-71-70
214 Airil Rizman 70-73-71, Nicholas Fung 72-70-72
215 Danny Chia 73-71-71
