Kapur battles to 71, Lahiri is 11th in Jakarta

Shiv Kapur carded a battling 71 on a rather tough and windy Saturday to lie tied 7th, while fellow Indian Anirban Lahiri was tied 11th after the third round of the BNI Indonesian Masters here Friday.

On the traditional moving day, the players were made to work hard as the wind persisted from early in the morning at the Royal Jakarta Golf Club here.

Kapur, two-under at one stage, went as high as Tied-third before bogeys on 11th, 13th and 16th seemed to push him out of Top-10.

However, Kapur, Tied-third here in 2012, clawed his way back with a birdie-birdie finish to rise from one-over to one-under.

At eight-under 208, he is one better than overnight. He is eight shots behind leader Poom Saksansin (70).

Poom, who got a shirt autographed by Henrik Stenson earlier in the year at EurAsia Cup, will play with the Swede in the final group on Sunday.

Putting well again and hitting with amazing precision, Poom is 16-under and three ahead of Stenson (68), whose great charge took him to 13-under. Thailand's Jazz Janewattananond (69) was third at 10-under.

Seeking to end 2018 as World No. 1, Justin Rose (71) lied Tied-fourth at nine-under alongside Thailand's Panuphol Pittyarat (70).

Among the other seven Indians making the cut, Lahiri, the winner here in 2014, was Tied-11th, despite missing a lot of putts in his 71. He had two birdies on the sixth and 18th and one dropped shot on 13th.

Rahil Gangjee (71) was two-under and T-20 as was young Viraj Madappa (72), while SSP Chawrasia (74), who opened with two birdies in first three holes, later gave away those gains to be Tied-30th.

Khalin Joshi (75) and M Dharma (75) were Tied-51st. S Chikkarangappa (76) was Tied-59th and Indo-Swede Daniel Chopra (74) was Tied-30th.

Kapur had mixed feelings after a tough day.

"It was a tough day with a strong wind from the start but there was no rain. I missed a few putts, but also made some good ones to save pars, so I suppose it evens out. At the end one always feels it could have been a few shots better," he said.

Lahiri rued his putter, saying, "I have just not been able to get the putts to fall. I have hit well and been generally happy with my game. I have either misread the greens or just not been able to get things going."