Gurugram, March 28 – Eugenio Chacarra, the defending champion, opened a four-stroke lead after carding his third consecutive round under par.
Chacarra carded a 70, two under par, to bring his total score to 10 under par after 54 holes (67-69-70). Alex Fitzpatrick and MJ Daffue are tied for second place, four strokes behind the leader at 6 under par. Daffue has carded rounds of 71-67-72 while Fitzpatrick has carded 71-68-72.
David Law (71-70-70), who is in fourth place, is the only other player to have played under par in all three rounds. He is tied with Freddy Schott (66-73-72).
OP Chouhan is the top Indian in the field, with one round remaining in the Hero Indian Open. Chouhan carded a 73, one over par, for a total score of one over par. He is in 20th place, along with nine other players.
In the morning, Akshay Bhatia, an Indian-American golfer, who was also the top-ranked player in the field, had a major 36-hole casualty.
With the second round incomplete on Friday, Bhatia had to return on Saturday morning to complete his second round and try to make the cut. Bhatia was at 4 over par with two holes remaining, and he bogeyed the challenging 17th hole, dropping to 5 over par and missing the cut.
Chouhan began his third round with a birdie on the first hole, followed by bogeys on the fourth and seventh holes, and then a birdie on the eighth to finish the front nine at even par. On the back nine, Chouhan had a birdie on the 11th hole, followed by four shots in three holes with a double bogey on the 12th and bogeys on the 13th and 14th holes.
Chouhan finished the round at 1 over par with birdies on the 15th and 17th holes. Chouhan's total score for the week is 1 over par (73-71-73).
Besides OP Chouhan, two other Indians, 18-year-old Manoj S and Kshitij Naveed Kaul, have made the cut this week. Manoj is currently in 54th place with a score of 6 over par (76-70-76).
Kaul was three strokes behind the cut line when play was suspended on the second day with four holes remaining in his second round. On Saturday morning, the 25-year-old made a birdie and an eagle to squeeze himself into the cut. Kaul is now in 63rd place with a score of 9 over par (73-75-77).
Chacarra started the day with four consecutive pars before making his first birdie of the round on the fifth hole and immediately dropped a shot on the sixth with a bogey. The defending champion finished the front nine with three consecutive birdies to gain a lead over his closest rivals. Two bogeys on the back nine at the 13th and 14th holes and a birdie on the 16th saw the Spaniard finish the day at 10 under par, four strokes ahead of Daffue and Fitzpatrick.
If Chacarra wins on Sunday, he would be the fourth player in history to successfully defend the Hero Indian Open title, one year after denying Keita Nakajima the opportunity to set the same record.
Chacarra is already the only Spanish player to have won the title.
Kenji Hosoishi (1967, 1968), Jyoti Randhawa (2006, 2007) and SSP Chawrasia (2016, 2017) are the three players who have successfully defended the title.
If Daffue or Fitzpatrick win, they would also be setting records of their own. Daffue would be the first player since Englishman Richard McEvoy to win a Hotel Planner Tour and a DP World Tour event in consecutive weeks in 2018.
Daffue won the DP World PGTI Open just last week at the Classic Golf and Country Club, which is just 30km away from the DLF Golf and Country Club.
Fitzpatrick is chasing the distinction of being part of the only sibling duo to have a title in consecutive weeks on two separate tours.
Alex Fitzpatrick is the younger brother of Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the Valspar Championship last week in Florida.