Lahiri tied eighth, five shots behind leader at Queen’s Cup

SAMUI - Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri shot a brilliant five-under 66 to move into tied eighth, just five shots off the lead, at the end of the third round of the $300,000 Queen’s Cup here Saturday.

Lahiri, who is looking for his maiden Asian Tour title, admitted to being a little too anxious.

“I’ve been playing well the past few weeks but I’ve been a little harsh on myself , asking a bit much of myself. My goal this week was just to have fun, enjoy the course and the views and play some relax golf. It’s been so far so good,” said Lahiri, who along with Gaganjeet Bhullar won a team silver at the 2006 Asian Games.

Lahiri opened and closed the round with a birdie and in between had five more. But he also dropped two bogeys on second and 15th. His birdies came on first, sixth and seventh on front nine and then on tenth, 13th, 16th and 18th.

The next best Indian was Himmat Rai, who recovered from a three-over front nine and finished with birdies on 16th and 18th for a 72 and at four-under 212, he is tied 17th. Rahil Gangjee (70) at one-under is tied 27th and C Muniyappa (75) is four-over and tied 54th.

Lahiri is five shots behind the leader, Japan’s Yoshinobu Tsukada.

Tsukada drained a 15-foot eagle putt on the last hole to snatch a one-shot lead from Thailand’s Chinnarat Phadungsil. Tsukada, playing on a sponsor’s invitation this week, holds a three-day score of 13-under-par 200.

The 39-year-old Tsukada overcame a three-shot deficit at the start of the day with a solid five-under-par 66 to give himself a chance of a first Asian Tour title at the Santiburi Samui Country Club.

Chinnarat, 20, struggled with a wayward driver and needed a 10-foot birdie conversion on the 18th hole for a 70 to stay on the leader’s heals. A 67 saw Filipino Mars Pucay surge into contention as he moved into tied third place with Korea’s Kim Dae-hyun (68), three back.