Kuala Rompin: A third sub-70 round of the week saw defending champion S. Murthy move into a three-way share of the lead after an interesting moving day at the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) PNB Lanjut Classic on Friday.

The 41-year-old posted a solid four-under 68 at Lanjut Golden Beach & Golf Resort to brighten his chances of retaining the title he won last year but will have to overcome first-day leader Airil Rizman Zahari (68) and a hungry Akhmal Tarmizee Nazari (70), all who accumulated a three-day overall of 10-under-par 206.

Current Order of Merit leader R. Nachimuthu moved into sole third on 210 despite a round one-over 73 while 0vernight leader Mohd Nazri Mohd Zain, who started the round on 10-under-par gave returned with a 77 to slip five strokes behind the joint leaders.

Murthy, who recorded his second runner-up finish of the season a fortnight ago at the Terengganu Masters, expressed his confidence of going one better tomorrow. “I was quite lucky today as I managed to putt well and stayed relatively out of trouble. I hope my momentum will not go away tomorrow and it would be nice to win again here,” he added on the back of a card of five birdies and two bogeys.

Perlis Classic winner Airil hoped for a better reap today as he struggled with his flatstick on the bumpy greens due to the one-hour rain delay. ” Today’s round wasn’t great as I was struggling with the pace of putting. But I gave myself the opportunity to achieve something tomorrow, so we’ll see,” noted the 34-year-old.

Leading third round scores
206 – S. Murthy 69-69-68, Akhmal Tarmizee 67-71-68, Airil Rizman Zahari 66-70-70
210 – R. Nachimuthu 67-70-73
211 – Mohd Nazri Mohd Zain 68-66-77
213 – Sukree Othman 73-72-68, S. Sivachandhran 71-73-69, M. Sasidaran 69-72-72, Muhammad Alwarith Damian 71-74-68
214 – Kenneth Tobuse 70-69-75
215 – Kemarol Baharin 72-73-70, Khor Kheng Hwai 72-70-73
216 – Muhammad Azry 78-71-67, Mohd Iszaimi Ismail 71-73-72, Zurie Harun 71-70-75