Peter Lawrie stalled on day three at the Hero Indian Open as he carded a level par 71 in hs third round at Delhi Golf Club.
Lawrie dropped two shots and picked up one to reach the turn at one over, before making a solitary birdie on the back nine to finish level for the day and three under for the tournament.
He now sits in a tie for 12th place and nine shots off the lead of India’s SSP Chawrasia who remains on course for his third European Tour victory on home soil.
Chawrasia was one shot clear of fellow course specialist Siddikur Rahman overnight after flawless rounds of 65 and 67 and doubled his advantage thanks to a 69 on Saturday to reach 12 under.
The 36-year-old had been four shots clear after birdies on the first, second and 13th, and a double bogey on the 15th from playing partner Rahman, but dropped his first shot of the week on the 17th and saw Rahman birdie the last.
Australian Marcus Fraser stood five shots off the lead after a 67, with Thailand's Prayad Marksaeng and Sweden's Daniel Chopra another shot back, Chopra holing from off the green on the 18th for a closing eagle in a flawless 65.
Chawrasia, who has finished runner-up in his national open three times, said: “I feel great. I missed a few putts but I’m still happy. I missed my eight iron on the 17th hole or else I would have still been bogey free.
“I want to think and play positive on the final day. The final round is always special so I will play aggressively. I played my own game and was not thinking that I’m playing match play (against Rahman). If anyone is coming closer, let them. I just want to focus on my own game.”
Rahman, who has only failed to finish in the top 10 once in 11 appearances at Delhi Golf Club, matched Chawrasia’s birdie at the first and followed that with 11 pars before picking up another shot on the 13th.
His only blemish came on the 15th when he found a bunker with his approach and compounded the error by three-putting from long range.
“It was a good day,” Rahman said. “I had a nice rhythm and picked up a couple of shots until the double bogey. But I managed to recover well and made a great par save on 17 and then managed to birdie the last so overall I am happy with one under today.
“The birdie at the last was very important. Anything can happen in this game — I am looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully I can play the way I did on Thursday. I tried not to look too much at what SSP was doing today. I tried to focus on my own game and keep hitting the greens in regulation and try to make some birdie putts.”
The tight, tree-lined course has not been to everyone’s liking but Fraser is certainly a fan of the venue.
“I love this golf course, I wish we could play here every week,” the two-time European Tour winner said. “It’s just a proper golf course and you have to play the way the game should be played around here in my opinion.
“Most weeks nowadays you tee it up as high as you can and hit it as hard as you can and that isn’t the way the game should be played. You should have to think your way round and that’s what you have to do here.
“I have a little chance tomorrow but I will have to shoot pretty low and hope that SSP and Siddikur don’t do that which is difficult to see at the moment.
“Those two guys play here like it’s their back yard. They just love the course as well and you can see why in their results. But hopefully I can go out there tomorrow and give it a go.”
