The Hindu : Digvijay Singh takes lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 09, 2003

Sport

Sport - Golf

Digvijay Singh takes lead

By Our Special Correspondent

Jyoti Randhawa of India shares a lighter moment with Gerry Norqist of the U.S. during the penultimate day of the Hero Honda Masters golf tournament at the Delhi Golf Club in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI NOV.8. Knowing the importance of making a `charge' on the penultimate day, Digvijay Singh produced a second successive four-under 68 and established a two-stroke lead as the $ 300,000 Hero Honda Masters headed for a close finish at the Delhi Golf Club course here.

The day which saw overnight leader Chiranjeev Milkha Singh vacate the top slot following a card of one-over 73, Jyoti Randhawa matched the effort of his brother-in-law Digvijay to share the second spot with Gary Rusnak. The American, who played the USPGA Tour in 1996 and remains a regular on the Asian Tour since 1999, began the day at level par but ended it with the tournament's best of seven-under 65.

Though Japan's Akinori Tani sank a hole-in-one on the 165-yard 17th hole and made sure of $ 3000, the day belonged to Digvijay who started the round in the second spot with Vijay Kumar and Pappan at five-under. Though Vijay and Pappan struggled in vain to improve, Digvijay took off with an `eagle' and led for the better part of the day.

Today, Digvijay's iron-play was better than his putting. If his 4-iron second shot on the opening hole set up an `eagle-putt' from 10 feet, his 9-iron approach shot on the 10th from about 150 yards lipped the cup and almost gave him another `eagle'. In all, he needed 27 putts.

In fact, Arjun Atwal led briefly in the afternoon after being nine-under following a hat-trick of birdies ending on the 13th while Digvijay followed with eight-under after 12 holes. However, Atwal fell back after a double-bogey on the par-five 14th and eventually finished the day with a bogey for a 70.

Like Atwal, Chiranjeev also double-bogeyed the 14th hole and slipped after being seven-under, just a stroke behind Digvijay at that stage.

Rusnak, the day's biggest surprise, benefited greatly by opting to tee-off with irons, relying on wedge-shots and getting his short-play right. Off his eight birdie-putts, the one on the 13th from about 30 feet was the longest.

Randhawa's best card in three rounds was studded with an 11th-hole `eagle' and four birdies. The two-time champion who came in with a 32, struck a 9-iron from about 159 yards, the ball dropped about eight yards short of the pin and rolled in. This offset his double-bogey on the par-four sixth hole where he went over the green and landed into the bushes. He chipped out, chipped again to reach the green and then two-putted.

Longest drive: Gurbaaz Mann drove to 328.3 yards to win the 500-dollar first prize for the longest drive. Lam Chih-Bing of Singapore took the second prize of 300 dollars with an effort of 316.6 yards. Rahil Gangjee's drive stopped at 314.7 yards and earned him 200 dollars.

The scores (Indians unless stated):

Digvijay Singh (71, 68, 68) 207; Gary Rusnak (US) (73, 71, 65) and Jyoti Randhawa (71, 70, 68) 209; Rafael Ponce (Ecu) (74, 69, 67) and Arjun Atwal (69, 71, 70) 210; Unho Park (Aus) (72, 70, 69), Anthony Kang (US) (70, 70, 71) and Chiranjeev Milkha Singh (66, 72, 73) 211; Ashok Kumar (70, 74, 68), Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) (72, 71, 69), Rafiq Ali (71, 70, 71) and Vijay Kumar (68, 71, 73) 212; Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) (72, 73, 68), Sung Mao-chang (Tpe) (75, 70, 68) and Marcus Both (Aus) (72, 69, 72) 213; S. S. P. Chaurasia (74, 72, 68), Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) (73, 72, 69), Gaurav Ghei (72, 72, 70), Kim Felton (Aus) (77, 68, 69), David Gleeson (Aus) (71, 73, 70), Scott Barr (Aus) (72, 72, 70), Feroz Ali (72, 70, 72), Pablo Del Olmo (Mex) (68, 74, 72), Gerry Norquist (US) (72, 69, 73) and Mukesh Kumar (73, 69, 72) 214; Jason Knutzon (US) (75, 71, 69), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) (72, 70, 73), Adam Fraser (Aus) (74, 68, 73), Stephen Lindskog (Swe) (72, 70, 73), Simon Yates (Sco) (73, 69, 73)

and Pappan (69, 70, 76) 215.

Other Indians: Sanjay Kumar (74, 71, 71), Uttam Singh Mundy (72, 71, 73) and Vinod Kumar (70, 72, 74) 216; Sandeep Syal (75, 72, 70), Harinder Gupta (A) (77, 69, 71), Rahil Gangjee (75, 69, 73), Ajay Gupta (71, 73, 73), Shamim Khan (71, 74, 72) and Jaiveer Virk (69, 71, 77) 217; Gurbaaz Mann (75, 72, 71) 218; Vikrant Chopra (A) (69, 79, 71), Suleman Ali (75, 72, 72) and Shiv Prakash (73, 72, 74) 219; Amritinder Singh (73, 75, 72) and Jumman (69, 78, 73) 220; Vishal Singh (75, 70, 76) 221; Arjun Singh (70, 78, 75) 223; Monish Bindra (77, 71, 76), Ali Sher (71, 74, 79) and Yusuf Ali (77, 68, 79) 224; Gast Ram (74, 73, 78) 225; Balbir Singh Verma (74, 72, 80) 226 and Roop Singh (76, 72, 79) 227.

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