GURGAON: Jyoti Randhawa's worst card in three days was still good enough to enlarge his lead to six strokes on a rather uneventful penultimate day of the Rs. 65-lakh DLF Masters golf tournament here on Saturday.

Randhawa's one-under 71 gave him an aggregate of 203 and kept him well in sight of his third PGTI Tour title in as many appearances this season.

Sitting comfortably on a six-stroke cushion, Randhawa has almost made it a one-horse race on his home course.

Barring a dramatic turnaround, Randhawa looks set to raise the winner's trophy on Sunday at the DLF Golf and Country Club.

Day's best

Shiv Kapur moved to the second spot at 209 after shooting the day's best 66.

One stroke behind was S. S. P. Chowrasia, followed by Australia's Richard Backwell, Vijay Kumar and Mukesh Kumar.

Young Gaurav Diwan, overnight in the second spot, dropped to the shared seventh spot with Gaurav Ghei after a heartbreaking 77, including a quadruple bogey on the par-5 18th hole.

He lost the ball with his tee shot, sent his approach shot into the water hazard and putted poorly to sign off on a very disappointing note.

Besides Shiv Kapur, those who improved their standing included Singapore's Lam Chih Bing, with a 69 that placed him ninth at 215 and Tour leader Ashok Kumar who carded a flawless 68 to be tied 15th at 219.

On a day that saw only 10 sub-par scores, each of the 55 professionals on view were partnered by an amateur. It was indeed a stiff challenge for the professionals to stay focussed on the job even as the amateurs, expectedly, took their time to play error-filled golf.

Not surprisingly, the leader group, including Randhawa and Diwan took just under six hours to finish the round.

The heavy rain and hailstorm that lashed the city last evening made things pleasant for the golfers for the better part of the round. But the strong wind made shot-making difficult.

Randhawa's putting was not as good as on Friday. He did sink an eight-foot birdie on the second hole but bogeyed from nine feet on the seventh.

The par-4 13th, where the green played lightening fast and the pin was placed on a slope, the top seven golfers on the leaderboard bogeyed.

But Randhawa recovered with successive birdies on the following two holes and then found par on the remaining three.

Shiv Kapur, battling a back injury, fired seven birdies, including four times in his flawless front-nine.

He putted delightfully well and birdied from 15 feet on the third hole. On the next hole, Kapur picked up another shot from five feet before sinking a 12-foot birdie on the eighth. He took the turn by finding his fourth birdie following two putts from about 35 feet.

The scores: Jyoti Randhawa (68, 64, 71) 203; Shiv Kapur (72, 71, 66) 209; S. S. P. Chowrasia (71, 69, 70) 210; Richard Backwell (Aus) (68, 70, 74) 212; Vijay Kumar (70, 70, 73) and Mukesh Kumar (70, 71, 72) 213; Gaurav Diwan (69, 68, 77) and Gaurav Ghei (72, 69, 73) 214; Lam Chih Bing (Sin) (75, 71, 69) 215; Arjun Singh (73, 72, 72) 217; Ranjit Singh (66, 74, 78), Digvijay Singh (71, 70, 77), Uttam Singh Mundy (74, 72, 72) and C. Muniyappa (69, 78, 71) 218; Gaganjeet Bhullar (75, 69, 75), Naman Dawar (71, 74, 74), Shamim Khan (72, 74, 73), Rahul Ganapathy (75, 72, 72), Roop Singh (76, 72, 71) and Ashok Kumar (75, 76, 68) 219.

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