Shiv Kapur staged a tremendous fightback on the back nine, where he hit an eagle, to card a sub-par round for the third day running and stay in contention for a good finish at the Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open, here on Saturday.
Kapur, lying eighth overnight, shot 69 and moved to nine-under but slipped three places down to tied 11th.
At five shots behind the leader on a crowded leader-board, Kapur can still make the charge on the final day.
Meanwhile, the other Indians had a bit of struggle as Jeev Milkha Singh (74) dropped to tied 48th, Chiragh Kumar (71) was also tied 48th and SSP Chowrasia (76) was way down in 71st place.
Local star Masamichi Uehira fired a third round score of six-under-par 65 to grab a one-shot lead over Filipino Juvic Pagunsan after 54 holes.
Uehira is now 14-under-par 199 but 14 players are within five shots at the approximately $1.9 million event sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
Sharmila misses cut
Sharmila Nicollet's valiant effort in the closing stages went in vain as she missed the cut by one shot after the second round of the Tenerife Open de España Femenino at Golf Las Américas in Italy on Friday.
Sharmila, who shot 72 in the opening round, and was placed 40th, carded 75 in the second and ended at three-over 47, while the cut came at two-over 146. She had a poor start with two bogeys in the first three holes and a third on eighth.
Sharmila had her fourth bogey on the 14th to go to four-over. But she still had a chance if she found two birdies in the last four holes. She did get those birdies on 16th and 18th, but she also dropped a bogey on the 17th and made an exit.
Australian Nikki Garrett made a final-hole birdie to retain her overnight lead at the end of the second round. After a career low 64 on Thursday, the 28-year-old from New South Wales started the day with a three-stroke advantage at eight under par and carded a second-round 73 in hot and breezy conditions to end seven under taking a one-stroke lead.
Gangjee crashes out
Rahil Gangjee had a nightmarish second round of six-over 78 and crashed out at the midway stage of the WNB Golf Classic in Texas Midland, the US, on the Web.com Tour.
Gangjee, who shot 75 in the first round ended with a nine-over 151 total that ended his campaign early.
Gangjee had two birdies, four bogeys and two double bogeys in the second round. The leader was Morgan Hoffman, a Monday qualifier, who carded eight-under 64 and took a three-shot lead into the weekend at the Midland Country Club.
