Veer Ahlawat placed tied 46th as Fitzpatrick leads

Sutton Coldfield (UK), Aug 24 (PTI) India's Veer Ahlawat shot his second consecutive round of 1-under 71 and was placed tied 46th on the third day of the Betfred British Masters on the DP World Tour here.

Ahlawat (73-71-71) has a combined score of one under par and at the Belfry Hotel & Resort.

In his third round Ahlawat shot four birdies, one eagle and five bogeys. Having begun the day with a bogey on the first hole, Ahlawat strung together three birdies in a row between the third and fifth holes before dropping another shot on the eighth hole.

He picked up a shot on the 10th and then dropped one on the 11th and another on the 13th. The highlight of the round was the eagle and it came on the 15th before making the final bogey of the day on the 17th hole.

Indian-origin player Aaron Rai carded 2-under 70 on the third day to put himself in tied 40th position on the leaderboard with a 54-hole score of two under par.

Rai made four birdies and two bogeys on the third day. The birdies came on the second, third, ninth and 15th holes and the bogeys were made on the fifth and seventh holes.

Matt Fitzpatrick led the field heading into the final round after shooting a round of 4-under 68 for his third round. This took his total score to 12 under par. Fitzpatrick made four birdies, two bogeys and one eagle in the round.

In second place, one shot behind the leader, is Alex Noren who shot a bogey free third round of 7-under 65 including five birdies and one eagle.

Tied for third place at 10 under par are Nicolai Højgaard and Marco Penge. Højgaard went on a rampage on the back nine with seven birdies to move up the leaderboard.

Penge, fresh off his win last week, carded a flawless round of 9-under 63 to put himself in title contention and also equal the course record. PTI Cor AH AH