Rana, Gagan lead with three-under 213 after round three

Bangalore, Jun 12 (UNI) The last 18 holes of the LG Southern India Amateur will be an exciting affair with Vikram Rana and Gagan Verma tied for the lead, both having a total of three-under 213 after the third round here today.

Rana shot a one-under par while Gagan submitted a one-over par card in the third round.

Young Rashid Khan who signed off with birdies on his last two holes, shot the day's best of three-under 69 and was three shots behind the duo. The Delhi lad was tied for the third place along with Abhinav Lohan at 213.

India's No two Manav Das and H S Kang shared the fifth position at 217. Rahul Bakshi and Chikkarangappa at 218 shared the seventh spot.

Rana who had emerged as the leader in the opening round played some brilliant golf under trying conditions where the winds called the shots against the attacking golfers. After a strong start, Rana hit a purple patch from the fourth hole where he made four birdies on the even holes - fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth - to be four-under for the day after the tenth.

However, Rana lost his tempo for a brief while on the 12th and 13th which cost him dearly as he lost four shots making double bogeys on each of them. Gaining confidence Rana birdied the 15th and saw that he did not commit any further mistakes in the round.

''It is really disappointing. I was playing some good golf and those two holes did me in,'' said Rana.

Meanwhile, Gagan Verma made a dream start making birdies on the first two holes. However the lanky golfer committed mistakes on the third and seventh resulting in bogeys. With an early birdie on the 11th, Gagan was back to under par score. As he was cruising along, a bogey on the 15th and the finishing hole, he was forced to be tied for the lead.

Leading scores after three rounds: 213 Vikram Rana (70, 72, 71), Gagan Verma (72, 68, 73), 216 Rashid Khan (71, 76, 69), Abhinav Lohan (72, 72, 72), 217 Manav Das (75, 69, 73), HS Kang (74, 68, 75), 218 Rahul Bakshi (78, 70, 70), Chikkarangappa (74, 69, 75), 220 Saurav Bahuguna (72, 74, 74), 221 Abhishek Jha (75, 75, 71), 222 Simarjeet Singh (76, 74, 72), Karan Vasudeva (74, 74, 74), 224 Siddharth Seth (72, 81, 71), Karan Singh (73, 75, 76), Arshdeep Tiwana (71, 77, 76) and Jasjeet Singh (72, 75, 77) UNI MSP MV AB HT2050