So maybe the jungles lining Delhi Golf Club’s narrow fairways aren’t so penal after all. Or at least the one on the left side of the 18th hole wasn’t on Saturday for Tommy Fleetwood.
Fleetwood, the 36-hole leader, had become a chaser after Keita Nakajima posted a bogey-free 65 to hold a three-shot lead at the DP World India Championship as Fleetwood finished his third round.
Both players were among the nearly 50% field this week, playing without a driver on a unique Delhi Golf Club layout that is basically cut into the jungle just outside one of the world’s largest cities. The fairways at the 6,912-yard course average just 25 yards wide.
Fleetwood nearly found out just what happens after an errant shot on his final hole Saturday. From the left first cut of rough at the finishing hole, Fleetwood went for the par-5 green in two with a long iron on the course’s longest hole and pulled it further left toward the thicket.
The crowd was quiet as Fleetwood’s ball headed toward what could have been a best-case unplayable lie and likely lost ball, but as it turns out, having thick jungle just off the fairway acts as a bumper sometimes.
In a genius stroke of luck, Fleetwood’s ball ricocheted off the trees and kicked right back into the middle of the fairway, just in front of the par-5 green in two.
