Rahil Gangjee zooms up to fourth in Macau Open

Indian golfer Rahil Gangjee carded a flawless five-under 66 and zoomed up the leader-board to be tied fourth after the third round of the Venetian Macau Open here on Saturday.

Gangjee, who opened with a 73 on the first day, shot a 67 on the second and further improved with a 66 to get to eight-under 205, four shots behind leader Scott Hend.

Australian Hend put on a fine performance with a blistering eight-under 63 to open up a four-shot lead over Ernie Els of South Africa and Bangladeshi Siddikur after the third round.

Gangjee led a string of fine performances from other Indians, too, as Anirban Lahiri (68) and Arjun Atwal (68) moved up from overnight 25th to tied 12th.

Chiragh Kumar, 36th after second round, shot 68 and moved to tied 16th. SSP Chowrasia (69) also moved up from tied 57th to 32nd at even par 213 and Shankar Das (71) also moved to 40th, up 17 places.

But Gaganjeet Bhullar continued to lag behind after a round of 72 and is now 40th. Also lying way behind are Himmat Rai (73) in tied 51st, Sujjan Singh (76) in tied 56th and Ajeetesh Sandhu (74) in tied 62nd.

Gangjee was happy with the way his game has been going.

He opened with two birdies and then following a string of pars, he birdied three birdies in last four holes.

"My game is coming together and hopefully it will stay that way. I have been working hard and I know I have to be consistent, which is what I am trying," he said.

"There is one more day to go and it should be exciting, because anything can happen, when there is tension," he added.

Lahiri had five birdies on front nine and another two on back nine. But he also dropped four bogeys on back nine for a 68. Atwal had three birdies and an eagle against two bogeys in his 68.

Gangjee (66), Filipino Elmer Salvador (70), Daisuke Kataoka of Japan (69) and Baek Seuk-hyun of Korea (70 all share the fourth place.