The Hindu : Pablo sets up three-stroke lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

Sport

Sport - Golf

Pablo sets up three-stroke lead

By Rakesh Rao

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Pablo De Olmo lines up his putt.

NEW DELHI, MARCH 27. Riding his luck to the hilt, Pablo Del Olmo raced away to a three-stroke lead by firing a 67 for a three-round aggregate of 14-under 202 in the third and penultimate round of the Royal Challenge Indian Open golf tournament here on Saturday.

Mardan Mamat and Keith Horne settled for scores of 70 while Thaworn Wiratchant had enough reasons to be dissatisfied with a 71 at the Delhi Golf Club course.

Olmo was fortunate on so many occasions today that he faces a danger of running out of luck on Sunday. The Mexican went well over the green on the 14th but chipped in from 25 feet for a birdie. On the 16th and 18th fairways, his shots found trees on the way and stayed away from the bushes. Particularly so on the 18th where the ball ricocheted off a branch and settled in a fairway bunker. When Pablo took a bunker-shot, luck kept him company as the ball, that looked like rolling ahead of the pin, stopped within three feet of the cup after running into the ball hit a little earlier by Wiratchant. However, both players missed their birdie-putts but Pablo was not complaining.

"I was really very lucky today,'' was the candid admission of Pablo before adding in a lighter vein, "it was as though some animal grabbed the ball and put in back on the fairway.'' He was referring to the eventful 18th hole where he used a 3-iron, while thinking of going for an 8-iron, and his "soft'' blow found the tree on the right.

Horne agreed he did not give himself too many chances to line up birdies, particularly on the back nine, and added that he would have been happier if he had picked up one more stroke during the day.

Beginning from the fourth hole, Horne had a birdie-birdie-bogey-birdie sequence that eventually helped him take the turn at two-under. Like the previous two rounds, Horne once again birdied the 15th but like yesterday, dropped a shot on the 16th.

Mamat, looked poised to get closer to Pablo after an eagle on the 14th hole where he used a driver and 3-iron to set himself up for a 10-foot putt. His first mistake had come on the par-three 12th where he chipped and two-putted for bogey. Again on the 18th, considered a `birdie-hole', Mamat hit into the bushes and eventually bogeyed.

Wiratchant missed too many opportunities on this day. After bogeys on the first two holes, he more than made up by firing birdies on the fifth, sixth and eighth holes. On the back nine, Wiratchant missed small birdie-putts on at least four holes.

The Indians, however, found themselves shut out of the title-race. Mukesh Kumar, after beginning the day at six-under, picked up three strokes at the end of eight holes but a double-bogey on the 11th saw him defending his score of seven-under on the rest of the holes for a joint-seventh spot.

Firoz Ali was 12th following a 69, followed by Rafiq Ali and Digvijay Singh on the joint-13th place after rounds of 69 and 67, respectively. Vijay Kumar, the 2002 champion, slipped to the tied 21st spot after a 75.

Harinder Gupta, the lone amateur in the field, shot an eagle on the par-4 11th hole but his efforts stood undone when he struggled to a quadruple bogey on the par-five 14th for a 74.

The scores (third round): Pablo Del Olmo (Mex) (69, 66, 67) 202; Mardan Mamat (Sin) (68, 67, 70) and Keith Horne (RSA) (63, 72, 70) 205; Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) (66, 69, 71) 206; Mo Joong-Kyung (Kor) (68, 70, 70) and Gary Rusnak (US) (68, 69, 71) 208; Lam Chih-Bing (Sin) (71, 69, 69), Stephen Lindskog (Swe) (69, 69, 71), Ross Bain (Sco) (69, 70, 70), Mukesh Kumar (67, 71, 71) and Clay Devers (US) (67, 69, 73) 209; Firoz Ali (72, 70, 69) 211; Digvijay Singh (73, 72, 67), Bryan Saltus (US) (68, 72, 72), Rafiq Ali (69, 71, 72) and Gerry Norquist (US) (73, 66, 73) 212; Kim Felton (Aus) (71, 73, 69), Amandeep Johl (72, 69, 72), Adam Fraser (Aus) (74, 65, 74) and Greg Hanrahan (US) (70, 68, 75) 213; Edward Michaels (US) (73, 72, 69), Adam Le Vesconte (Aus) (74, 69, 71), Anthony Gilligan (Aus) (72, 70, 72), Rick Gibson (Can) (70, 71, 73), Vijay Kumar (71, 68, 75) and Amritinder Singh (68, 72, 74) 214.

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