Sarawak C'ship: Aman Raj top Indian at T-21

Aman Raj struck five birdies and a late bogey for a card of four-under 68 to emerge the best-placed Indian after 54 holes in the Sarawak Championship here on Saturday.

Aman, who shot 68-69 in first two rounds, is now 11-under for three rounds and is placed at T-21 at the USD 300,000 tournament.

S Chikkarangappa also brought in his third successive score in the 60s with 69 and is now 10-under to be T-24. Udayan Mane (70) at nine-under is T-32, while Khalin Joshi (68) is eight-under and T-38. Aadil Bedi (71), Shiv Kapur (70) and Rashid Khan (73) are seven-under and in T-43. Ajeetesh Sandhu (74) and Akshay Sharma (71) are T-54th.

Meanwhile, Thailand's Pavit Tangkamolprasert rode on a hot putter to post a seven-under-par 65 and grab a share of the third-round lead with Richard T. Lee of Canada and Chinese Taipei's Hung Chien-yao.

Aman birdied three of the four Par-5s and his lone bogey came late on the Par-3 17th.

Pavit, an Asian Tour winner, returned with a near-perfect round highlighted by eight birdies against a bogey to match the overall efforts of Lee and Hung, who signed for rounds of 64 and 68 respectively, at the Damai Golf and Country Club.

The trio snatched a one-shot advantage over Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand after they were tied at the top with matching three-day total of 18-under-par 198s.

The round of the day came from to Thai-Japanese Kosuke Hamamoto, who fired a sizzling 10-under-par 62 to set a new course record at the Arnold Palmer-designed course.