Manu Gandas made a move with a six-under 64 in round three to join Shaurya Bhattacharya, who shot a 73, at the top of the leaderboard at the INR 1.5 crore DP World Players Championship 2026 Powered by Urbana being played at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata.
Related: Shaurya Bhattacharya shoots 62 to build on lead
Former DP World PGTI Order of Merit champion Manu (66-69-64), who was overnight tied seventh and nine shots off the lead, put together an eagle, five birdies and a bogey on Thursday that moved his total to 11-under 199.
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Shaurya (64-62-73), the halfway leader by four shots, was not at his best on day three as his two birdies and five bogeys saw him slip into the joint lead at 11-under 199.
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Om Prakash Chouhan (64), Akshay Sharma (64) and Sanjeev Kumar (67) were all tied third at 10-under 200.
Manu, who is well-versed with the Tollygunge Club course having won at the venue in the past, was slow off the blocks with his first birdie coming on the Par-3 eighth courtesy a terrific tee shot. He was then on a roll as he followed that up with another birdie on the ninth and a 17-feet eagle conversion on the 10th.
Manu’s bogey on the 12th didn’t trouble him much as he rallied with three birdies thereafter which included a chip-in on the 14th and an 18-feet conversion on the 15th.
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Manu said, “My striking off the tees stood out today and so did my approach shots. I created a lot of opportunities for myself. I would say that I have not been in the groove so far this season but I’m slowly getting there. I also like playing at Tollygunge and I have some good memories of my victory here back in 2024. That is something I will draw inspiration from in the final round.”
Shaurya had an off day on Thursday as he missed a number of chip-putts.
Shaurya said, “The club selection and the decision-making by me was not correct today. The consistency wasn’t there. I will now look to restart and try to replicate what I did in the first two rounds.”
, who was overnight tied seventh and nine shots off the lead, put together an eagle, five birdies and a bogey.){kind=link}