Puchong: S. Sivachandhran is poised to clinch his his second Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Tour title after carving out a four-stroke lead following the third round of the PGM I&P Kinrara Classic on Saturday.
The 33-year-old shot a one-under-par 70 in difficult scoring conditions at a wet Kinrara Golf Club to take himself to a 10-under 203 total as a late blip from Danny Chia, who dropped four strokes over his last three holes, ultimately proved the difference between him and the leader.
Danny finished bogey-bogey-double bogey to slip to six-under 207 for the tournament, two shots ahead of the trio of Airil Rizman (67), Haziq Hamizan (69) and Jeremiah Kim (71).
There was also a three-way tie for sixth place as Rusli Johari (69), Shaaban Hussin (70) and defending champion Sukree Othman (71) finished the third round on 3-under 210 at the RM150,000 opening leg of the burgeoning domestic circuit’s 2013 season.
Despite a comfortable cushion, Sivachandhran was far from satisfied with his overall play. “I didn’t win on the Tour last year but I came close on a number of occasions and I’m taking a lot of confidence from my showing at the PGM-Maybank Tour Players’ Championship a fortnight ago. So, tomorrow I will take it (the round) as it comes and hopefully it will all come together.”
“The wet conditions did not help, but obviously I was not the only one affected by it as the scores today were not low generally. I didn’t strike the ball as well as I could, but I’m still happy to be where I am – four strokes in front.”
Danny, for his part, lamented his own ball-striking and added the last three holes really got to him. “In these conditions, I thought I was doing alright until the 16th hole, which I bogeyed after pulling my second shot to the left of the green. I followed that up with another bogey at 17 where I fluffed my chip and then double-bogeyed the last hole.”
Leading third round scores
203 – S. Sivachandhran 67-66-70
207 – Danny Chia 72-63-72
209 – Airil Rizman Zahari 71-71-67, Haziq Hamizan 70-70-69, Jeremiah Kim 71-67-71
210 – Rusli Johari 69-72-69, Shaaban Hussin 69-71-70, Sukree Othman 72-67-71
211 – Khor Kheng Hwai 69-73-69
212 – Akhmal Tarmizee Nazari 73-71-68, Mohd Nazri Mohd Zain 67-70-75
213 – R. Nachimuthu 71-73-69, Azman Basharuddin 69-74-70, Nicholas Fung 71-67-75
