Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), Dec 21 : Yashas Chandra M.S. of Mysuru made his way to the top of the leaderboard with a flawless five-under 66 in round three of the INR 3 crore Tour Championship 2024, the Professional Golf Tour of India's (PGTI) season-ending event being played at the Beldih and Golmuri Golf Courses here on Saturday.

Yashas (69-64-66), who was overnight fifth and four shots off the lead, climbed four places on Saturday as his total reached 14-under 199. Yashas, yet to win a title, enjoyed a slender one-shot lead. Udayan Mane (67-65-68), two-time winner of the TATA Steel Tour Championship, signed for a steady 68 to move up two spots to second position at 13-under 200. Greater Noida-based Sudhir Sharma (67) and Sri Lankan N Thangaraja (70) were in tied third spot at 12-under 201.

The first three rounds of the richest event on the PGTI saw one-half of the field play their first nine holes at Golmuri Golf Course and second nine at Beldih Golf Course while the other half of the field played Beldih first followed by Golmuri. This format will also be followed for the fourth and last round of the tournament in Jamshedpur with the par for the round being 71. The leading groups will start at Golmuri and finish at Beldih.

Yashas Chandra, currently eighth on the PGTI's merit list with seven top-10s to his credit this season, came up with a solid effort as he hit 16 greens in regulation on Saturday. The 29-year-old golfer from Mysuru was on fire on the front nine where he sank four birdies, two from a range of 15 to 20 feet and two on the Par-5s.

After the turn, Yashas picked up another birdie on the Par-5 12th. While the putts did not fall for him on the back nine, Yashas made sure not to concede any shots by making pars all the way to the end.

Yashas said, 'I'm delighted with the way I struck the ball today. I also hit it close on both courses. The only disappointment was missing a few putts here in Beldih. I felt today my tee shots were better than the previous two days and that made a huge difference.

'The biggest challenge here in Jamshedpur is getting the speed right on the greens on both courses. That's the reason we have to practice some putts here in Beldih before resuming our round after arriving from Golmuri," he said. 'This being a low-scoring track, I know that I will have to be aggressive in the final round. There will be plenty of low numbers tomorrow so I'm aware that I also need to shoot a low score in order to be in contention,' he added.

Udayan Mane, like Yashas, made steady progress in round three. Udayan hit it close through the day as he picked up four birdies in exchange for a bogey. He almost drove the green on the Par-4 fourth hole and left himself a tap-in for birdie on the eighth. However, several putts didn't roll in for Mane as he had a couple of lip-outs and a couple that grazed the hole.

Chandigarh's Yuvraj Sandhu produced a tournament low of eight-under 63 that featured five consecutive birdies. Yuvraj was placed tied sixth at 10-under 203 along with TATA Steel PGTI Ranking leader Veer Ahlawat (68). C. Muniyappa of Bengaluru made a hole-in-one on the seventh during his round of 69 that placed him tied eighth at nine-under 204. Defending champion and two-time tournament winner Gaganjeet Bhullar (67) was a further shot behind in tied 10th place.

The three Jamshedpur-based professionals Karan Taunk (three-over 216), Kurush Heerjee (11-over 224) and Digvijay Singh (15-over 228) were placed tied 49th, tied 56th and 61st respectively.

/IANS