Amardip, Sanjay & Shamim in the joint lead after round three

Pune, April 19, 2012: Meerut’s Amardip Sinh Malik, Sanjay Kumar of Lucknow and Delhi’s Shamim Khan are the joint leaders at four-under-209 after round three of the PGTI Players Championship presented by Poona Club Ltd. Amardip, Sanjay and Shamim shot scores of 72, 71 and 73 respectively on a high-scoring day at the Poona Club Golf Course.

Amardip Sinh Malik (68-69-72) made a solid start with six straight pars and then found the green in two on the par-5 seventh to set up his first birdie of the day. Malik dropped a bogey after missing a three-footer on the eighth.  The 26-year-old made birdie-bogey-bogey on the ninth, 10^th and 11^th to move to one over for the day. Amardip birdied the 14^th and bogeyed the 16^th to end the day with a one-over-72.

“I’m quite pleased with my round considering the kind of places I landed the ball today. I recovered from tough situations and made a couple of good chip-putts for birdies on the ninth and 14^th. I’ve hung in there despite not being on top of my game over the last three days. I’ll need to sink more putts in the final round in order to stay in contention,” said Amardip, who is looking for his maiden professional title.

Sanjay Kumar (69-69-71) holds the joint lead thanks to an even par 71 in round three. Sanjay made six birdies and six bogeys on Thursday.

Shamim Khan (69-67-73) is also at the top of the leaderboard along with Amardip Sinh Malik and Sanjay Kumar. Shamim’s 73 included a triple bogey on the first, three birdies and two bogeys. Shamim, who also led in round two, made a 35-feet putt from the edge for birdie on the 12^th.

Deepinder Singh Kullar of the DLF Golf & Country Club is placed fourth at three-under-210 while Pune’s Sameer M Shaikh and Arshpreet Thind of the Classic Golf Resort are joint fifth at two-under-211.