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Saturday, Apr 07, 2007
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Ghei shoots into the lead

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Gaurav Ghei remains the eternal sentimental favourite at the Delhi Golf Club. Having played on his home course for over 25 years, it is natural to expect this 37-year-old to know the course better than most professionals in the country.

With a stunning card of seven-under 65, Ghei reinforced the belief on the second day of the Rs. 60-lakh AIS Open golf tournament on Friday.

On a day when the scores were less encouraging than those seen on the first day, Ghei moved three strokes ahead of the first-day leader S.S.P. Chowrasia, who followed his opening card of nine-under with a par round.

No cushion

"A three-stroke cushion is nothing on this course even if you have just one hole to go. Here we still have 36 holes to play," said Ghei who felt the course continued to play hard and tough.

The cut came at five-over 149 and left 52 professionals and three amateurs in the fray over the weekend.

For the second straight day, Ashok Kumar shot a 68 and moved to the third spot, one ahead of Jyoti Randhawa. After shooting a par round on Thursday, Randhawa fired a 67.

But the man of the moment was Ghei. His iron-play consistently took him to the greens and he holed quite a few long putts on the back nine.

After starting from the 10th tee, Ghei three-putted the par-4 13th from about 25 feet. He made amends on the 14th with a 12-foot birdie.

After saving a good par on the 17th, Ghei hit the zone by firing five straight birdies, the longest one being the 20-footer on the fourth hole.

Close miss

Ghei picked up another shot on the sixth before sending in a curling birdie-putt from about 15 feet on the par-5 eighth hole. He could have signed his best ever card on this course but his birdie-putt on the ninth hole just missed the cup from about 25 feet.

Interestingly, the only man to match Ghei's card of 65 was Chandigarh's Dayal Singh, who had shot a 79 on the opening day. "Unlike yesterday, my tee shots landed in the right areas. And with a bit of luck on my side, I putted well,'' said the 26-year-old.

Ashok, the in-form Tour leader, started with successive bogeys but salvaged a shot each on the 16th and 18th holes. On the home nine, Ashok eagled the first, birdied the second, eighth and ninth with his only blemish coming on the seventh hole.

Chowrasia, three-over at the turn, birdied the first and eagled the eighth holes to return par.

The scores: Gaurav Ghei (67, 65) 132; S.S.P. Chowarsia (63, 72) 135; Ashok Kumar (68, 68) 136; Jyoti Randhawa (72, 67) 139; Gaganjeet Bhullar (71, 69) 140; Vijay Kumar (71, 70) 141; Amandeep Johl (69, 73), Lam Chih Bing (Sin) (72, 70), Shiv Prakash (68, 74) and Vinod Kumar (67, 75) 142; Randhir Singh Ghotra (70, 73), Jaiveer Virk (70, 73), Arjun Singh (71, 72), Digvijay Singh (72, 71) and Sandeep Syal (73, 70) 143; Shamim Khan (69, 75), Sujjan Singh (71, 73), Amardip Sinh Malik (72, 72), Craig McLean (Aus) (68, 76), Dayal Singh (79, 65), Navtez Singh (A) (70, 74) and Gurki Shergill (68, 76) 144.

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