KUALA LUMPUR: After some solid performances earlier in the tournament, it was a disappointing day for the three Malaysia golfers remaining in the penultimate round of the IRS Prima Malaysian Open today.
Khavish Varadan, who shot six-under 65 to share the lead yesterday, could only muster a one-over 72 at the The Mines Resort and Golf Club today.
Ervin Chang, who shot nine-under 62 to place joint-seventh yesterday, settled for a two-under 69 today.
The duo are now both tied-14th on a three-day 12-under 201, five strokes adrift of Jared Du Toit (196) who topped the leaderboard after carding a nine-under 62 today.
Australian Kevin Yuan (197) and American John Catlin (198) head into the final round in second and third position while South Korean Kim Bio, Australia's Deyen Lawson, Spain's David Puig and England's Steve Lawton are tied-fourth (199).
Khavish admitted it was not the result he was hoping for.
"Unfortunately, moving day wasn't very moving for me," said Khavish.
"I have been playing well here and the first two days were good but today was just a bad day," said Khavish.
"My game plan was the same, which was to be aggressive, unfortunately I just couldn't execute it well enough.
"I was good around the greens but just didn't make the putts I was supposed to.
"I think I putted fine, the ball just didn't want to go in. But that is golf, I just have to take it on the chin and move on."
Khavish, who has spent almost a decade in the United States, remains optimistic heading into the final round of the competition.
"It's good that it happened today and not tomorrow. We still have another day to play. I've done this before, it is just a matter of me executing my game plan and making the putts when I need to.
"My knowledge of Malaysian golf is not really up to date, however, I know that Ervin is a good player and that we both have a good chance tomorrow. It will be fun for everyone."
Ervin echoed Khavish's sentiments and is hoping to bounce back strong tomorrow.
"I'm frustrated, I wanted to narrow down the gap with the leader. It was not my best performance. I started off really well but couldn't really make anything else going from there," said Ervin.
"Gave myself some opportunities but couldn't score. Overall I'm just frustrated that I couldn't really make any putts today.
"But we still have 18 holes more to go and I will definitely try to do my best tomorrow. I am going to go back and analyse my game a little bit more and see what I can do".
Kim Leun Kwang, the only other Malaysian to make the cut, carded a one-under 70 to placed tied-64th (207) alonglisde Australian Douglas Klein.
Leun Kwang said: "I really struggled on the front nine because I didn't hit any fairways on the front nine at all.
""Didn't have my best day I guess out there. The wind wasn't a factor, not that strong as yesterday when we played in the afternoon."
A total of 30 Malaysian players had started the tournament on Thursday.