Gaganjeet Bhullar, who won his last title 11 months ago to the day, put himself in the perfect position to pick up his 12th Asian Tour win as he fired a bogey-free 66 at the Black Mountain Championship.
Bhullar, who had 65-66 in the previous two rounds, added a 66 to get to 19-under and two shots clear of American John Catlin (65), whose earlier rounds were 69-65.
Catlin, the Order of Merit leader, was 17-under. Fellow American Michael Maguire was third with 68-64-68 at 16-under.
Bhullar, who trails Thai legends Thaworn Wiratchant (18) and Thonghchai Jaidee (13) in terms of wins on the Asian Tour, has 11 wins and is also the top Indian.
The next best Indians are Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal, with eight wins each.
Bhullar had a bogey in each of his opening two rounds. In the third, he birdied four times on the front nine and twice on the back nine. Overall, he has had 21 birdies against two bogeys in three rounds.
The other two Indians, Khalin Joshi (73), was T-39th at 9-under, and Karandeep Kochhar (73) was T-65 at 5-under. There is a round more left.
Bhullar, 36, was dogged by a sore hip this year. He has not finished better than joint 33rd at the International Series Morocco.
After missing the last three cuts, he is currently 123rd on the Asian Tour Order of Merit.
However, the rebound appears to have begun this week, and a 12th win is a real possibility.
“It was a good round of golf, to be honest,” said the Indian star, who made six birdies and started the day sharing the lead with Suteepat Prateeptienchai from Thailand.
“I think the best part was that it was a bogey-free round. I probably hit about 17 greens in regulation, so that gave me a good opportunity to make lots and lots of birdies.
“I putted quite well today. I would say, as good as yesterday and drove the ball well; just missed two fairways today. But other than that, I think it was a solid round.” He holds the course record here, a round of nine-under back in 2009, and has only dropped two shots all week.
And despite the poor weather today, which fortunately was just rain and no lighting, he has continued to dominate the course.
“Normally, it’s a thunderstorm, and we don’t play. But yeah, it was quite challenging,” he added.
“Actually, in the last few holes, I had to change my strategy off the tee because I was just not comfortable hitting driver on all the holes. On number 16, I had to hit a three wood, and on the 17th, I had to hit a four iron.” Chinese Taipei’s Lee Chieh-po (64) was tied fourth with David Boriboonsub of Thailand, who shot 67 and were both 15-under.
Overnight co-leader Suteepat Prateeptienchai of Thailand slipped to tied sixth after a round of 71 at the low-scoring course. He shared sixth place with Italian Stefano Mazzoli (70) at 14-under.
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