Chapchai keeps record pace

Singapores Mardan Mamat was stopped twice as he stood to putt on the wind-whipped par-four 15th hole at the Classic Golf Resort...

Singapores Mardan Mamat was stopped twice as he stood to putt on the wind-whipped par-four 15th hole at the Classic Golf Resort on Friday. First one ball came flying from the tee to the edge of the green,and then the next one landed right behind him. It seemed then that Chapchai Nirats scoring frenzy might be stopped too. Part of the group responsible for the interruption from that 15th tee,Chapchai was three-under for the day then,conservative by his lofty standards at this years SAIL Open.

But having come off a birdie on the par-five 14th,Chapchai finished the day with four more on the last four holes to suddenly zoom up to seven-under 65 for the round,pulling way ahead of the rest of the field. He is 27-under after the third round,eight shots ahead of the next name on the leaderboard. Indian youngster Gaganjeet Bhullar rose up to the second spot,shooting another bogey-free round,a six-under 66.

The title race might not have remained too open going into the fourth day,but Chapchai has other goals to chase. His total is just two shy of the Asian Tour winning record,a 29-under by South African Ernie Els at the 2003 Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth.

Forgettable start

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But an unfamiliarly cloudy morning had begun a tad dismally for the Thai. On the sixth hole,Chapchai hit his weeks speciality,the near-perfect iron shot,to about three feet to the pin,nonchalantly watched his playing partners scramble for pars,and then shook his head in amazement as he missed his birdie putt. On the next hole,he mishit his second shot over the green,over the rough,and downhill on the cart path. He did manage to save par with a carefully placed chip,but then missed two shorter-than-10-foot putts for birdie over the next three holes.

He finally dropped a shot on the par-three 11th,short of the green with his first shot and then missed a too-long putt. He was one-under after 11 holes,and it looked like he might finally get caught. Unfortunately for the chasers,the touch was back for a whirlwind finish.

His playing partners never quite managed to get close. New Zealands Mark Purser and Thai Wisut Artjanawat were four and five shots back in second and third place,respectively,when they started. Pursers chances ended over a stretch of three straight bogeys from the 10th to the 12th,having left himself a one-putt for par on each of the three holes. He finished with a level-par round and is in sixth place with a 16-under 200. Artjanawat had recovered from an ordinary start to his round with a three-birdie stretch starting from the 14th hole,but double-bogeyed the par-three 17th and fell back to an even-par round as well. He is tied 13th.

Bhullar was on-target with his approaches to the green,and could have scored a lower number if not for some missed birdie putts. He said hes not giving up title hopes just yet. Anything can happen in golf. Nirat is playing really well,and I will need to shoot a really good number for a good finish,but Ill try to do what Ive been doing for the past three days, he said.

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South African Keith Horne shot the best round of the day,an eight-under 64 with one eagle,seven birdies and a bogey to move up to a share of third. Australian Richard Moir and Philippiness Antonio Lascuna are also third on 17-under 199s.

Leaderboard

-27 Chapchai Nirat (THA) 62 62 65

-19 Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 67 64 66

-17 Keith Horne (RSA) 68 67 64,Richard Moir (AUS) 66 67 66,Antonio Lascuna (PHI) 65 67 67

-16 Mark Purser (NZL) 65 63 72

-15 Ross Bain (SCO) 67 68 66,Prom Meesawat (THA) 68 65 68,Wisut Artjanawat (THA) 65 64 72

-14 John Parry (ENG) 68 68 66,Thammanoon Srirot (THA) 67 68 67,Ashok Kumar (IND) 67 68 67