The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Chopra slumps to tied 21st; Singh in lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 10, 2006

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Sport - Golf

Chopra slumps to tied 21st; Singh in lead

Lemont (USA): Overnight leader Daniel Chopra played his worst golf of the week carding a horrendous five-over 76 to slump to the tied 21st spot conceding the top spot to Fijian Vijay Singh, who shot a three-under 68 to become the sole leader after the penultimate round of the $5 million Cialis Western Open golf here.

It was a disastrous performance by the Indian-born Swede after previous two rounds of 66 as he slid down the leaderboard. Chopra had a nightmarish front nine hitting four bogeys, including a brace on the fourth and fifth, and failed to fire a single birdie.

His backward journey started in a similar fashion as he dropped two consecutive shots on the 10th and 11th. He tried to arrest the slide by hitting a birdie on the 12th and 15th, but a dropped shot on the in between and the damage done by the poor front-nine spoilt his chances of going under-par.

Meanwhile, Singh was the major gainer from Chopra's pathetic show and came up with a decent performance, firing four birdies against a solitary bogey on the ninth in his round of 68 to take the lead.

Jeev slips

Meanwhile, in Kildare, Ireland, Jeev Milkha Singh's bid to book a place at The Open Championship suffered a setback after he carded a disappointing two-over 74 in a rain-hit third round to slip to tied 12th at the $42,36,000 Smurfit European Open.

Jeev, who started the day in tied fourth place, endured rain and windy conditions to total four-under 212 after three days.

Playing alongside local favourite Darren Clarke, Jeev held steady with a front nine 35, but dropped three bogeys on his homeward stretch to trail the Spanish leader Jose Manuel Lara (207) by five shots.

Another Indian, Jyoti Randhawa improved his show a bit, but could not prevent an over-par score as he carded a 73 to move up to the tied 55th spot.

Randhawa now has a three-day total of 219 going into the final round. — UNI

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