The Hindu : Sport : Jeev Milkha tied for sixth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 01, 2005

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Sport

Jeev Milkha tied for sixth

Shanghai: Jeev Milkha Singh shot his third straight under par round to keep himself in the hunt for a good finish in the $1.5 million BMW Asian Open.

Jeev shot a two-under 70 for an overall nine-under 207. He is tied for the sixth place with Luke Donald and Soren Hansen.

South African Ernie Els, looking to add a third title from Asia this year, carded a round of four-under 68 to stretch his lead to five shots after 54 holes with a total of 19-under 197 at Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club. Els is already a winner in Dubai and at the Qatar Masters in 2005.

Jeev opened the day with two birdies and moved to fourth at one stage. He dropped a shot at fifth and then birdied the ninth to turn in two-under. He had a birdie and a bogey in the back nine.

Jyoti Randhawa brought in his best card of the week with a five-under 67 and that saw him rise from the cut line after two rounds to tied 20th.

Randhawa, who had six bogeys and four birdies on the second day, where he barely made the cut, played more assuredly in the third round. He had just a birdie on the front nine on the eighth, and then on the back nine, he had five birdies including three in a row from 13th to 15th, before dropping one on the 16th. He closed out with a birdie to card 67.

Rahil Gangjee, the third Indian, brought in a one-over 73 for a total of one-over 217 for three days. He is tied 68th.

Best hope

Jeev remains the best hope for an Asian push, as the Indian brought the form that sees him in sixth position on both the Asian and Japan money lists to Shanghai.

With a two-under 70 on Saturday, he is tied for sixth and believes some attacking play will help move up the scoreboard on Sunday.

Jeev said, "I am going to be aggressive and I am going to try and shoot a low number. To finish 10th or 30th is much the same thing, so I will go out there and try and be very aggressive and see what happens."

For Els, the man known as `Big Easy', it was a day of mixed fortunes after yesterday's stunning 62. He birdie the first, before two more front-nine birdies were offset by bogeys at four and nine. The trend continued early on the run home, before birdies at 13, 14 and 18 allowed him to post his 68. Lying five shots behind Els is England's Simon Wakefield with Thomas Bjorn in outright third, two more shots behind.

Jean-Francois Lucquin is another shot back in fourth and Korean-born New Zealander Eddie Lee is fifth at 10-under 206. Mo Joong-kyung of Korea and Thailand's Thaworn Wiratchant are tied for 20th.

The scores: 197: Ernie Els (Rsa); 202: Simon Wakefield (Eng); 204: Thomas Bjorn (Den); 205: Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra); 206: Eddie Lee (Nzl); 207: Luke Donald (Eng), Soren Hansen (Den), Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind); 208: Peter Lawrie (Irl), Jean Van De Velde (Fra); 209: Richard Sterne (Rsa), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra); 210: Simon Dyson (Eng), Edward Michaels (U.S.), Zhang Lian-Wei (Chn), James Kingston (Rsa), David Park (Wal), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Patrik Sjoland (Swe);

211: Greg Hanrahan (U.S.), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind), Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Mo Joong-Kyung (Kor), David Bransdon (Aus). — PTI

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