Eugenio Chacarra’s tryst with India continues. 

The Spaniard, who won his first event at the 2025 Indian Open, is leading the suspended DP World India Championship after making four birdies on the front nine. He still has seven holes left to play from the Moving Day, but his serious competition seems to be coming from compatriot Angel Hidalgo.

The man with a fancy swing—here is what I mean—birdied four holes to keep the pressure on Chacarra. The road to the Lotus Trophy is still wide open with Joost Luiten, Adrian Meronk, Tom McKibbin, and Tommy Fleetwood within five shots of Chacarra. Fleetwood is the only player in this group to have finished his round.

The 3rd round started at 12:40pm local time after players finished their Friday rounds. Justin Rose needed a late charge to sneak inside the cut line. He birdied the 18th to make the cut on the number. Starting on the back nine in the third round, Rosey eagled the 18th and birdied the first. He has seven holes left to play.

Rory McIlroy fizzled out of contention pretty quickly. On Thursday, speaking about the rain delay, McIlroy said that, as the years pass, it has become difficult for him to regain momentum after a break. Saturday brought a different kind of challenge: the marathon day. 

By the time he started the 3rd round at 1:40 pm local time, fatigue showed up in his game. Two bogeys in the first four holes, a double on the 6th, two more bogeys on the 9th and 10th, and just two birdies pushed him to 4-over. A hole-out eagle on the par-5 14th was the only saving grace. A long Sunday awaits for Rory McIlroy and others, most of who were too tired to speak to the media after the round.

Here is how things stand

• Eight players are within four shots of the lead, and none of them has finished their rounds. It all depends on how well they can carry the momentum tomorrow. 
• Gregorio de Leo and Dan Bradbury shot the lowest 3rd round. They both carded 6-under, which was also matched by Patrick Reed, but the Masters champ is to finish his third round.
• 17 groups/51 players are yet to finish, while 9 groups/26 players finished Round 3. A spillover of a 4-hour rain delay continues to push the final round further.

Moments that you missed (but I’ll catch you up): 

• Rory McIlroy fired up the entire gallery after holing out for an eagle from the 14th hole bunker. Watch it here. 
• The beautifully chaotic swing of Angel Hidalgo. Just watch it.
• Yuvraj Sandhu was 6-over after the 8th hole but made seven birdies between the 9th and 18th to make the cut. 

Quick nuggets: 

• Only 56 players kept the driver in the bag. That’s only 38.9% of the 144-man field. 41 are using mini drivers, and 112 irons are in play, according to the DP World Tour.
• Laurie Canter posted the lowest second round (9-under 63) after finishing on Saturday. He bettered his first round score of 76 by 13 shots and moved up 87 spots on the leaderboard. 
• Adrian Meronk is playing his ninth consecutive tournament this week. He hasn’t missed a single tournament since LIV Indianapolis on August 23.

Quotes & thoughts: 

• Shane Lowry on finding momentum later in the year: “Been a tough year. Few near misses. I lost a bit of confidence from that. To get to Ireland and do what I did was amazing. I think no matter what happens tomorrow or the rest of the year, I’ll sit down at Christmas and have the Irish Open trophy on the table, and I’ll be happy with what I have.”
• Eugenio Chacarra on competing against Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy for Race to Dubai title: “Obviously they’re the best, one of best two players in the world, so for me to compete with them I need to bring my A-game like I said and I’m trying to do that. My team and myself are putting all we can to contend in Dubai.”
• Laurie Canter on making eagles on the 8th in both the 2nd and 3rd rounds: “It is a dogleg left to right, so suits my little fade, so I feel like I can sneak a bit round the corner than maybe someone who hits a draw. I shot two perfect tee shots and had like four irons in. And then, yeah, hit two—this morning would’ve been like a 50-footer or something.”
• Dan Bradbury on being fortunate enough to have just 18 holes tomorrow: “Literally, we just sent Darius [van Driel] running from the eighth green to the ninth tee there to try and finish. Yeah, very, very helpful. That’s an extra two, maybe three hours in bed. Played 28 holes today. Need the rest tonight.”

That’s it for today. I’ll be back with a post-round update tomorrow.