Anirban Lahiri fired a 7-under 65 during round three of the CIMB Classic and heads into the final round with a 4-stroke lead over Justin Thomas and Russell Knox.
Lahiri, paired in the final group with Thomas and Knox, was consistently solid throughout his round, making nine birdies on the day. The only real trouble for the 29 year-old Lahiri came on the difficult par 4 12th where he double bogeyed.
Thomas, the leader through 36 holes at 14-under, couldn’t get anything going on the front nine and made the turn at even-par for his round. But then the wheels really fell off, as Thomas went bogey-double bogey-bogey on holes 10 through 12, dropping the 23 year-old to 10-under for the tournament. But a par on the difficult par 4 13th hole seemed to settle things down, as Thomas finished with 5 straight birdies, moving to 15-under par through 54 holes.
Knox followed up his tournament-best 63 with a solid 4-under 68, and will be paired once again with Thomas and Lahiri in the final group.
Round one leader Derek Fathauer is tied for 4th with Hideki Matsumaya and James Hahn at 14-under.
Top 10
1 Anirban Lahiri -19
T2 Justin Thomas, Russell Knox -15
T4 Derek Fathauer, James Hahn, Hideki Matsumaya -14
7 Scott Piercy -13
8 Keegan Bradley -12
T9 Tyrone Van Aswegen, Adam Scott, Emiliano Grillo, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Brendan Steele -11
Shot of the Day
Kevin Na with a hole-in-one on the 8th hole at TPC Kuala Lumpur. It is Na’s first ever ace on the PGA Tour.
Kevin Na hit the first hole-in-one of his #PGATOUR career Saturday in Malaysia. https://t.co/Y6J4sXg4j8
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 22, 2016
Quotable
“It’s very satisfying, to finish the way I did definitely a big positive. I was determined today to keep my focus right through the 18 holes, and I’m happy I managed to do that. Just going to try and do the same tomorrow. I just told myself that I got rid of my double-bogey early in the round today and just tried to focus on what I needed to do. You know, like I said, I feel like I’m hitting it good with my irons, my wedges and I’m putting it good.”
–Anirban Lahiri, 54 Hole Leader
