Bengaluru, August 20: Shaurya Bhattacharya has successfully retained his two-shot lead after the third round of the Kolar Open 2026, held at the Zion Hills Golf County in the outskirts of Bengaluru. The tournament features a prize pool of ₹1 crore.
Starting the day with a three-stroke advantage, the 23-year-old golfer from Delhi scored one-under 71. He previously recorded scores of 68 and 67 in the opening rounds, bringing his total to ten-under 206. Although his lead decreased by one shot, he remains in a strong position heading into the final round.
Angad Cheema from Chandigarh (73-68-67) and Mohammad Azhar from Hyderabad (70-68-70) are tied for second place, both at eight-under 208. Cheema performed notably, scoring five-under 67, while Azhar stayed competitive with a two-under 70.
The best round of the day came from Czech Republic’s Stepan Dinek (76-70-63), who achieved nine-under 63 without any bogeys, including nine birdies. His impressive performance moved him up to fourth place with a score of seven-under 209, after starting the day tied for 14th.
Bangladesh’s Badal Hussain (69-72-69) finished fifth with a score of six-under 210, while Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat (71-71-69), the 2024 DP World PGTI ranking champion, secured sixth place with five-under 211. Bhattacharya faced challenging weather conditions, with rain and strong winds making the back nine particularly tough. Despite hitting the ball well, he missed two easy putts in the final holes.
Bhattacharya commented, “The rain and strong winds made conditions difficult, especially on the back nine. I hit the ball well but missed two short putts at the end.” A birdie on the last hole helped him maintain his lead before the final round on Sunday. He added, “It was important to finish the round with a birdie, which ended it on a positive note.”
Currently ranked 16th in the season standings, Bhattacharya intends to stick to the strategy that has kept him at the top of the leaderboard for the first three days. He stated, “The plan is to keep hitting shots on the fairway and greens. This approach has worked well in the first three rounds, so I will stick to it tomorrow.”
The current PGTI ranking leader, Saptak Talwar (72-71-70), moved from joint ninth to seventh place with a score of three-under 213. Defending champion Kshitij Naveen Kaul from Delhi (73-75-66) made the biggest leap of the day, scoring six-under 66 to rise from joint 22nd to eighth place with a total of two-under 214. Joining Kaul are Shubham Jaglan from Panipat (70-73-71) and Prakhar Asawa from Jaipur (71-71-72). Jaglan arrived in Bengaluru after winning his first professional title at the Coal India Open in Kolkata last week.
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