PGA Championships | Shubhankar Sharma climbs to joint third with a six-under 66 round on day 3

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma produced an action-packed six-under 66 with nine birdies and three bogeys to climb up the leaderboard to joint third at the end of the third round of the BMW PGA Championships in Wentworth, United Kingdom, on Saturday.

Sharma moved to 12-under and was third alongside the 2016 Olympic champion and former US Open winner Justin Rose (69) and South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout (69), who was also at 12-under.

Three shots ahead of Sharma were joint-leaders Jon Rahm of Spain, and the 2016 Masters winner, Danny Willett of England, both of whom were at 15-under. Rahm at one stage reached 16-under but bogeyed 17th, while Willett went up to 15-under with a birdie on 18th. Sharma was thrilled with his performance in this round and he was beaming with confidence to finish on a high.

“It was a good round. Made a lot of birdies. Gave myself a lot of opportunities and pretty pleased with the way I played. Obviously it’s my first time playing at Wentworth and learning more about the course with more rounds.

“I was reading the greens really well. All in all, pretty solid day. I’ve not been playing bad the last few weeks. It’s just about putting in four good rounds together. It’s just about getting right breaks and putting in four good rounds. It’s a great course. A lot of birdie opportunities. So anything’s possible and I’ll try my best tomorrow.” he told PTI

The 21-year-old Sharma has been struggling with results recently and had no Top-10s since his T-sixth at the Hong Kong Open last December, and although he did have a T-2, it was on Indian domestic tour, which fetched him some valuable world ranking points.

After a modest one-under 71 on the first day, Sharma produced a flawless 67 on the second day with five birdies.

A pumped-up Sharma exploded with a stunning third round on Saturday. He turned in four-under with five birdies against one bogey and then added further birdies on 10th, 12th, 16th and 17th against bogeys on 13th and 18th. His birdie on the 17th was where many of the higher-ranked players dropped a shot, but he gave away a shot on the 18th while trying to get closer to the leaders.

However, the other Indian SSP Chawrasia (72-78) missed the cut, which will fall at one-over.