Before the start of the Delhi Challenge, players acknowledged that one would have to fly very low to win the title in India. “The champion will reach minus 20 almost for sure,” we were told from the field. It looks like that will be the case. The moving day of the tournament has confirmed it. In spectacular playing conditions, very low scores have been achieved. The fight for the title is beautiful and tight. The top 35 of the tournament all played under par today. Martin Couvra, Joshua Grenville-Wood and Jack Senior (-16) share the lead after 54 holes. Twenty players are within a five-stroke range.
Frenchman Couvra started as the leader and has been watching all morning as the rest of the players around him were signing very low rounds. It seemed that he was losing his place at the top. Not at all, although today with 68 strokes he has signed his ‘worst’ round of the week, three birdies in the final stretch have returned him to the lead. Now he is not alone. He will go out tomorrow in the stellar match in search of his second victory on the tour.
Joshua Grenville-Wood is alongside Couvra and has risen to the co-leadership of the tournament after handing in a 67-stroke card thanks to a final stretch of five under par in the last five flags. The player of English origin and with United Arab Emirates nationality is playing in India the first tournament of the season on the Challenge Tour. So far it’s not going badly for him and tomorrow he will seek the first victory of his career on the tour.
Another Englishman, Jack Senior (-16), has joined the equation and ties at the top after beating the field by seven strokes, including a hole in one. Although his last victory dates back to 2019, the Englishman knows what it is to win twice on the Challenge and will fight for his particular hat-trick.
https://x.com/challenge_tour/status/1768951376397127745?s=46
Just one stroke off the lead is Tapio Pulkkanen (-15). The Finn has swept the Classic Golf & Country Club today with a spectacular 62 and gets into the fight for everything in the Delhi Challenge. Practically at the same time as John Catlin was eleven under par in Macao to deliver the first 59 in the history of the Asian Tour, 3700 kilometers away, Pulkannen was marking an incredible ten under par.
Tapio went out today in the early shifts of the morning after yesterday he passed the cut one stroke above the limit. From behind and off the radar he has been signing one birdie after another without fail up to a total of ten. Alongside the Finn tomorrow will be Alexander Levy (-15). Two strokes off the lead we find Oliver Farr and Jiri Zuska (-14) who have both handed in 66-stroke cards. In the same match will be the also French Oihan Guillamoundeguy (-14). Yes, yes, it’s spelled correctly, let’s see who can repeat the surname at first.
Three Spaniards are installed in the top twenty of the tournament. Very good news. Víctor Pastor (-11), Lucas Vacarisas and Joel Moscatel (-10). The three players have won strokes to the field today (68, 68 and 70 respectively), although it is true that today it was necessary to fly very low to get higher up in the table. Anyway, they have not said goodbye to the tournament and if not ask Pulkannen. The field offers many possibilities and tomorrow it will be necessary to win as many strokes as possible and add a great booty of points for the ranking. The victory will come sooner or later, but you have to keep adding towards the final goal.
Javi Sainz (-7) has continued to climb positions in the table and has won twenty places in the table (position 36) with a 69-stroke card. In the last round he will seek to continue climbing positions to add what will be his first points of the season on the Challenge Tour.
