New Delhi: Japan’s Keita Nakajima delivered a blistering seven-under 65 to emerge as the leader by two shots after the third round of the DP World India Championship 2025, to be played at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC) here on Saturday.
Nakajima (65-69-65), a former Indian Open champion, posted a total score of 17-under 199 after his bogey-free attempt on Saturday, moving up three places from his fourth-place finish overnight.
Keita’s closest rivals were England’s Tommy Fleetwood (15 under 201) in second place and Ireland’s Shane Lowry (14 under 202) in third.
The others chasing the leader were the quartet of American Brian Harman, England’s Alex Fitzpatrick, New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier and Sweden’s Jens Dantorp, who all finished fourth at 13-under 203.
Among the other prominent names, Norwegian Viktor Hovland finished eighth at 12-under 204, while five-time major winner and world No. 1 finished in eighth place. No. 2 seed and reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland finished in 15th place at 10-under 206.
Dhruv Sheoran (68-73-67) made great progress with his third round of 67 to finish at 8-under 208, the top-ranked Indian in 25th place. Dhruv’s round, which consisted of five birdies and one bogey, gave him a 16-place lead from his overnight tie for 41st.
Shiv Kapur (70) and Shubhankar Sharma (71) were the second best Indians at five-under 211 in 42nd place.
The other two Indians, Anirban Lahiri and Abhinav Lohan, scored 73 and ended the day at 58th and 63rd respectively.
Dhruv Sheoran started the day with a 40-foot birdie conversion on the second hole. Sheoran then made gradual progress as his superb up and down from the rough on the eighth and an outstanding approach on the 11th also led to birdies.
Dhruv’s only bogey of the day came on the 12th, but he made further progress thereafter with three birdie conversions from seven to eight feet.
Dhruv said: “I was pretty calm from the shooting range today. Then my putts on the putting green were clean and my coach gave me a big thumbs up. I carried that confidence onto the course and everything worked out well for me.”
“My coach Rahul Bajaj and I spent a lot of time on the range. He analyzed some movements that I could improve on. I then implemented those changes on the track. Seeing things happen on the track under pressure gave me a huge boost.”
“Today I was looking for a six under at the start of the round and I came very close to my goal. I was pretty relaxed all day and made a lot of putts. I did really well this week with my 2-iron and 4-iron.”
Shubhankar Sharma struggled a bit on the front nine, where he got two bogeys and a birdie. However, Shubhankar had a much better back nine in comparison, where he collected three birdies at the expense of a bogey.
Shiv Kapur was ahead for 10 holes all day before coming back strongly with birdies on his final three holes.
