New Delhi: Aman Raj shot a breathtaking eight-under par 64 to set ablaze The Delhi Golf Club on a warm Thursday as he slotted himself up into the second place with a gross of five-under par 211 at the end of the third round here. Overnight leader Viraj Madappa shot a two-under par 70 to go in to the final round with two-stroke lead.

Noida’s Samarth Dwivedi carded a two-under par 70 himself to make up the leader group with a gross of one-under 215 followed by Tapendra Ghai of Delhi a further two strokes behind.

Defending champion Aman took stock of the course conditions at the start of his round with three consecutive pars before a birdie on the fourth. Things started really moving for him from the sixth hole, which he birdied from 20 feet. He followed up with a birdie on the Par 3 7th hole before going three wood-three wood within six feet on the eighth for a brilliant eagle. He was five-under for the day as he took the turn and four-putted on the 10th for a double bogey. He quickly recovered the dropped strokes with birdies on the next two holes before another set on the 14th and the 15th holes had him four-under for the week. He played safe with good regulation pars before another birdie to close out a brilliant round and leave him in contention to defend his title.

“I was hitting the ball really well and went out with a positive frame of mind to gain strokes.” Said the Patna lad. He added, “The sixth hole is where it all started and I am happy to take a shot at winning it again.”

Meanwhile, overnight leader Viraj Madappa made four birdies on the front nine to go out four-under for the day but dropped strokes on the 10th, 12th and the 14th holes before a birdie on the closing hole gave him a two shot cushion.

Top Scores (after 54 holes):

209 Viraj Madappa (75,64,70); 211 Aman Raj (75,72,64); 215 Samarth Dwivedi (70,75,70); 217 Tapendra Ghai (74,70,73); 219 Simarjeet Singh (73,74,72), Saarthak Chhibber (76,70,73); 220 Hemendra Choudhary (76,72,72), Anshul Patel (75,72,73), Gagan Verma (74,73,73)