Ajeetesh Sandhu moved into joint lead at the end of the third round of the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship golf here on Saturday.
Sandhu followed up his first two rounds of 69 each with a four-under 68 that catapulted him from tied-sixth to joint first alongside local star Lu Wei-chih (69) and American Johannes Veerman (70) at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club. The trio is tied at 10-under-par 206
Gaganjeet Bhullar (71) was the next best Indian at T-25 at one-under 215 alongside Shubhankar Sharma (74), while Rahil Gangjee (70) improved from overnight T-65th to T-35th. Arjun Atwal (74), Shiv Kapur (74) and S. Chikkarangappa (77) are all tied 50th at two-over 218, while Chiragh Kumar (77) is tied 67th.
Sandhu said: “I’m looking forward to tomorrow [Sunday]. I feel pretty good. I’ve been playing good for the last year-and-a-half. I’ve been in contention a lot at home. That’s what you practise for, to contend for titles and this week is the same. I’m playing a lot better as compared to the first two times I’ve been here. I’ve played a lot in Japan as well and that’s helped me judge the wind better. That’s key here because it gets so windy in Chinese Taipei.”
Sandhu opened with a birdie and then bogeyed the next hole. He bounced back with birdies on third, fourth, seventh and 10th and closed with eight pars in a row.
Sandhu, 29, does not have an Asian Tour card but finished tied second at the Take Solutions Masters at Bengaluru in August, and came into this event on a country exemption.
Sandhu and Veerman are both searching for their first Asian Tour victory while Lu, 38, has won four times, but all in Taipei.
This was Lu’s best 54-hole performance in 2017.