New Delhi, October 18: Keita Nakajima’s affinity for India and Indian golf courses was emphasised yet again as he carded a bogey-free 65 to take a two-shot lead after the 3rd round at the inaugural $4 million DP World India Championship at the Delhi Golf Club.
After the win at the 2024 Hero Indian Open and a runner-up finish at the 2025 edition of the same tournament at the DLF Golf and Country Club, Nakajima’s latest efforts of 65-69-65 at the tree-lined, narrow Delhi Golf Club, have put him in the pole position.
Lying third behind Nakajima and Fleetwood was Shane Lowry (69) at 14-under. Lowry had three birdies on the front nine had two birdies and two bogeys on the back nine.
Jens Dantorp, Alex Fitzpatrick, Daniel Hillier and Brian Harman share fourth place on 13-under.
Rory McIlroy (68) got to double digits but at 10-under he was seven behind Nakajima at Tied-15th.
India’s top man was Dhruv Sheoran, whose wife, incidentally, hails from Japan. Sheoran, who
recently started working with a new coach – former Asian Games medallist Rahul Bajaj – produced his best card of the week with a 5-under 67 that had six birdies to be on Tied-25th. Four of his birdies came on the back nine against one bogey on the 12th. Earlier, he had two birdies on the front nine.
The highlight of Nakajima’s round came on the par-three 12th as he drained his 40-foot birdie effort to grab a share of the lead.
Another long-range birdie putt dropped on the 13th to hand Nakajima the solo lead, and he made it three in a row at the 14th from nearly 20 feet to move two shots in front. He safely parred his way home to head into the final round with a two-shot cushion.
Nakajima said: “It was a great day. I played with Shane Lowry and I love his swing tempo and his golf style. So I learned from Shane a lot. I copied his swing tempo on every shot, that’s why I did great.
“I had two good tournaments in India already so I had confidence playing here. One more day, just keep going.”
Halfway leader Fleetwood topped the leaderboard for large parts of the day on Saturday after three front-nine birdies saw him turn in 33. However, he struggled for momentum on the back nine as he parred the first seven holes before dropping his first shot of the day on the 17th.
He got the shot back on the 18th after a lucky bounce off a tree helped him get up and down for a closing birdie.
Fleetwood said: “Final group is always great. You’ve got to enjoy those moments. You don’t know when they’re going to come again. Looking forward to that. It’s been a great tournament. Just hopefully go out and enjoy it and play well.”
He added, “It was a shame because my pace was pretty rubbish all day, but then I felt like I had holed out so well up until — I made really good putts on — that’s the thing, you’re supposed to hole them, but like 2, 3, and then first putts on 6 and 7, they had so much to do — 8 was the same, 9 was the same, up-and-down on 10, make a really good putt for par on 12. So I did so much well.
Yeah, disappointing, but 72 holes. I had a five-hole stretch where I didn’t putt very well. I’ll try and fix it now and then we’ll go again tomorrow.”
McIlroy missed a ton of chances in his round of 68 and felt that he was perhaps a little too far behind.
He said, “Yeah, the course played pretty similar to the first two days. Not that there was much wind the first two days, but there’s even less today. I think the scoring is pretty good. I think people are getting used to the golf course, taking advantage of the holes that they should. I played okay today. I felt like I could have been a lot better. I missed a lot of putts, missed a lot of chances. If you put the ball in play, you’re going to have a lot of chances at birdies.
On his chances of a win from seven behind, he added, “Still quite a bit back, depending on how the guys play the back nine. But I’d imagine that if I shoot a low one tomorrow I could post a score and see what happens. But I’d say I’m probably two shots too far behind to have a realistic chance. But I could go out and shoot a low one tomorrow.”
Local star Sheoran said, “I was pretty calm today from the time I got to the range itself. Then on the putting green, my putts were rolling pure and my coach (Rahul Bajaj) gave me a big thumbs up. I carried that confidence to the course and things worked out well for me.
Sheoran, who has had five Top-10 finishes on the domestic PGTI this season and seven Top-10s including a win in 2024, has been trending well.
“Me and my coach have been spending a lot of time on the range. He analysed a few movements that I could improve on. I then implemented those changes on the course. Once I saw things happening on the course under pressure, it gave me a huge boost.
“I was looking for a six-under at the start of the round today and got very close to my target. I was quite relaxed throughout the day and made a lot of putts. I’ve done really well with my 2-iron and 4-iron this week.”
Sharma admitted he could not find the momentum. He said, “Yeah, didn’t get it going today. I was trying to hit it close, but I didn’t really get the momentum in the first few holes. Yeah, bit of a struggle. Still an under-par round, but I felt like I could have gone much lower, especially after how I played yesterday.”
Add Listing
