Panasonic Open India Rd 3: What they said

Joohyung Kim (Kor) Third round 65 (-7) Total 203 (-13)
I’m really speechless. It has been a dream of mine to play on the Asian Tour ever since I was young. And it’s really wonderful to come here, be in contention and win. I cannot describe the feeling now. I’m still trying to learn every single step of the way. The season has been great especially coming back from my injuries and winning three times on the ADT and now this victory. I’ve been playing well. Last week, I was one off the lead with two holes to play. But it didn’t quite work out the way I wanted then. So, going into today, I just tried to give myself as many chances as I could. I did that on the front-nine but I kind of struggled in my back-nine, knowing I was in contention. It was really windy today and I scrambled quite well. It was not easy to shoot a 65 under these conditions. But I managed to do it and now, I’m a winner!

Chikkarangappa S. (Ind) Third round 67 (-5) Total 204 (-12)
I’ve been superb on the par-fives this week as my strategy to lay up within my favourite yardage with my approach shots worked wonders. I was 10-under on the par-fives through the tournament. My hitting and putting were very consistent but my wedge-play was my only weak link this week. I wasn’t as close to the pins with my wedges as I would’ve liked. As far as my driving is concerned, I’ve been working on gaining distance over the last two months by improving on my weight transfer during the swing. All that hard work is now paying off as I’ve added about 25 yards, from 285 yards to 310 yards, to my driving average. The season began well for me with a tied 20th at the Maybank Championship and tied 10th at the Hero Indian Open. Thereafter, I didn’t have any great result. But those good finishes at the start of the season gave me room to work on my game and make some changes which in turn have helped me. I got my confidence going with the early birdie on the third where I made an 11-feet conversion. I then added two more birdies and a bogey till the 10th. I then finished well with three birdies over the last five holes where I made two quality chip-putts and a 30-footer after a poor second shot on the 15th.

Rory Hie (Ina) Third round 68 (-4) Total 206 (-10)
I was not really playing that well coming into this week. But meeting my caddie again and playing the holes which I played before here brought back lots of wonderful memories and that really inspired me to play well. It has been a long week and I’m happy I managed to end it off well. My goal is to get another win so that I can get the three-year exemption on the Asian Tour.