Anshul Mishra dominates in Vizag; opens six-shot lead heading into final day

Mishra shot a third successive under-par score to open up a whopping six-shot lead going into the final day. His gritty two-under 70 took his three-day cumulative total to five-under 211.

Hyderabad: While most golfers struggled on a windswept Thursday at the East Point Club, leader Anshul Mishra held his game together to extend his lead on the third day of the IGU Andhra Pradesh Amateur Golf Championship in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

Mishra shot a third successive under-par score to open up a whopping six-shot lead going into the final day. His gritty two-under 70 took his three-day cumulative total to five-under 211.

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Vinamra Anand, already a winner this season, shot an even-par 72 to take his aggregate to one-over 217, two ahead of Deepak Yadav. As the overnight second-placed player, Yadav had a poor day in the office to slip to sole third with a four-over 76. Arshvant Srivastava (71), and Jai Gupta (73) were two shots further back at five-over 221.

Like in the second round, Mishra got off to a rocky start with a three-putted bogey on the first hole. But the 17-year-old from Kolkata put that blemish behind him and got down to work. His ball-striking was solid for the most part, and his approaches were immaculate.

He sank a 12-footer on the fifth to pick up a shot, reached the green in two on the seventh, and two-putted for another birdie. The Order of Merit leader then nailed the pin with a 9-iron tee shot on the eighth for his third birdie.

After the turn, he hit his pitching wedge tee shot to three feet on the 11th, and attacked the flag with a sand wedge second on the 15^th to pick up another shot. However, he dropped a shot on the 14^th after missing a six-foot par putt, and made a bogey five on the 17^th after finding the right trees.

Leading scores (after 54 holes): 211: Anshul Mishra (WB, 70, 71, 70); 217: Vinamra Anand (UP, 74, 71, 72); 219: Deepak Yadav (Del, 70. 73, 76); 221: Arshvant Srivastava (UP, 77, 73, 71), Jai Gupta (Chd, 76, 72, 73); 222: Ram Singh Mann (Chd, 77, 73, 72), Ribhav Verma (Har, 74, 72, 75).