Khalin, Chikka stay in hunt at TAKE Solutions Masters

Thailand's Poom Saksansin continued to lead the field but local golfers Khalin Joshi and S Chikkrangappa gave him a good chase on the third day of the TAKE Solutions Masters golf at the KGA.
Poom stayed steady with a round of one-under 70 and moved to 12-under 201.
Joshi though lost his way in the middle and fell seven shots behind the Thai, he found his way back with a five-under back nine for a round of 68 to reduce the final lead to two.
Chikka, for his part, also had four birdies on the back nine in his 69 and he was eight-under.

The three who will form the final group have played together since their junior amateur days and will now get a chance to test themselves in professional ranks.
Poom has one win on the Asian Tour, achieved at Indonesian Masters last year besides an ADT win, while Chikka has two ADT wins, both in TAKE Solutions events in 2014 and 2015. Joshi has tasted professional victory on the Indian Tour and has come close on Asian Tour, but not managed to close it.

The day's best round came from DLF golfer, Abhinav Lohan who starting from even par for 36 holes, carded seven-under 64 that included 10 birdies, one bogey and a double.

It carried Lohan to 7-under 204 and into tied fourth with Divyanshu Bajaj (69), who came back into the frame after a sedate second day.
Joshi had a good start with birdies on second and third and the lead between him and Poom was reduced to one, as the Thai dropped a shot on second. Then Joshi lost his way with two bogeys and a double between sixth and ninth.
Another birdie for Poom saw the Thai go seven ahead of Joshi with seven holes left for the day.
But over the remainder of the round, Joshi worked his way back extremely well with five birdies, while Poom had one birdie and one bogey and the margin at the end of the eventful third round was just two.

"I had a good feel on the first four holes as I swung it well and was also striking it well. Then a bad tee shot on sixth just changed my whole rhythm. I felt I was just hurrying it a little at that stage. The 6-foot birdie on 11th got me back on the rails," said Joshi.
"At one stage after Poom birdied the 10th I was seven shots behind. I thought I had lost it. But I'm thrilled with the five-under on the back-nine. I'll carry some confidence from the latter stages of the round," he added.
Chikka said although it was a bit of a struggle in the beginning, he made a good finish.

"I'm happy with it. The birdie on 18 was very special. I really wanted to be in the last group and give Poom a tough fight. I told my caddy that I'll either gain or lose a shot so I attacked the green. I holed about a 50-foot birdie putt.
"The final round is going to be good fun playing with my good friends Khalin (Joshi) and Poom (Saksansin). We played a lot of junior golf together and we will really battle it out tomorrow."
Natipong Srithong (64) and Casey O'Toole (65) produced bogey free rounds to share the sixth place at six-under 207. Syed Saqib Ahmed (71) stayed at eighth place at five-under 208.

However, Rahil Gangjee, Viraj Madappa and Sujjan Singh, all carded 73 each, and dropped from overnight tied-3rd to tied-13th. All three had disappointing finishes.
Gangjee had three birdies against five bogey, two of them in last two holes, while Madappa had three bogeys and a double bogey between 12th and 17th holes and Sujjan had a double on 16th and a bogey on 18th.