Golf: Yuvraj Sandhu shoots extraordinary 61, stretches lead to three shots at Players C'ship

Hosur (Tamil Nadu), Aug 21 (IANS) Yuvraj Sandhu of Chandigarh shot an extraordinary 10-under 61, his best score in two years, to stretch his lead to three strokes after round three of the Rs 1 crore PGTI Players Championship 2025 being played at the Clover Greens Golf Course & Resort near here on Thursday.

The 28-year-old Yuvraj (63-67-61), the current PGTI Order of Merit leader, who is staring at his fourth title of the season and second in two weeks, totalled 22-under 191 for three days.

Olympian Udayan Mane (67-65-62) of Pune, who was overnight tied second, struck a nine-under 62 on Thursday to move into sole second position at 19-under 194. Delhi’s Kshitij Naveed Kaul (68-67-64) came up with a 64 in the penultimate round to move up one spot into third position at 14-under 199.

Teenage amateur Veer Ganapathy of Bengaluru returned a 63 to be placed tied sixth at 11-under 202.

Yuvraj Sandhu, who will be looking to become wire-to-wire champion for the second week in succession, extended his overnight two-shot lead by another shot with the help of a tournament low of 61 that was punctuated by five birdies each on the front-nine and back-nine.

Sandhu’s error-free round featured two drives that found the greens on Par-4 holes, two 12-foot conversions, two terrific nine-iron approach shots, and a couple of quality up and downs.

Yuvraj said, “It was all about continuing the momentum from the previous rounds. I finally broke nine-under after almost two years, so that’s a big personal achievement for me, as it was something I had been aiming to do.

“The game is trending in a good way, I feel comfortable while standing on the ball, and am quite confident with the putter. I worked a lot on my driver’s club-fitting with my coach Gurbaaz Mann during the off-season. That seems to be paying off as my driving form has also been top-notch. I would now love to sign off on a high after three weeks on the PGTI before heading to the Asian Tour next week.”

Udayan Mane’s third round of 62 was highlighted by a 16-foot eagle conversion on the 12th, along with seven other birdies. The 34-year-old Mane, searching for his first win in four years, also sank a 40-footer on the 17th and drove the Par-4 15th green to set up birdies.

--IANS

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