Rashid grabs second spot on day 3 of Classic Golf & Country Club International C'ship

India's Rashid Khan carded a second straight six-under-66 in round three of the inaugural Classic Golf & Country Club International Championship to raise hopes of ending his five-year long dry spell on the Asian Tour here on Saturday.

The two-time Asian Tour winner Rashid gained one spot from round two to be placed second at 16-under-200 at the USD 300,000 Asian Tour event being played at the Classic Golf & Country Club (CG&CC).

Rashid, who won both his Asian Tour titles in 2014, trailed the leader Rory Hie of Indonesia by one shot.

Another Indian, Abhijit Singh Chadha returned an error-free 68 but slipped one position to third place at 15-under-201.

Rookie Aadil Bedi (69) ended the penultimate round as the third Indian in the top-5. The teenager was tied fifth at 12-under-204.

Rashid (68-66-66), two off the pace at the halfway stage, produced some good iron shots to collect birdies on the seventh, ninth and 10th. Rashid conceded his first bogey of the tournament after 46 holes when he dropped a stroke on the 11th where he had trouble with club selection.

Rashid, who previously won a TATA Steel PGTI event at the CG&CC in 2013, then rallied with four birdies on the 12th, 15th, 16th and 18th. He drove the green on the par-4 12th, chipped-in on the 15th, sank a 15-footer on the 16th and finally made a terrific up and down on the 18th.

Looking to regain his Asian Tour card after losing it this year, Rashid said, "Today's round was pretty good. I had a slow start, hit the ball well and hit some good putts, but they just didn't roll in. I made a good comeback after the bogey on the 11th when I drove the green on the next hole and two-putted for birdie.

"I'm enjoying myself out on the course this week. I'm consistently hitting the fairways and finding the greens. I've also been scrambling well. You need all of those things to put up scores of 5 to 6-under. Today, I just had one bad hole, the 11th. Otherwise, I kept hitting the greens giving myself a lot of chances."
"I'll only start thinking ahead when I'm on the last nine holes."