The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Lahiri continues to revel

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Friday, Jun 15, 2007
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Sport - Golf

Lahiri continues to revel

Special Correspondent

For the third successive day, Anirban Lahiri held sway to extend his lead in the LG-Eagleton amateur golf championship.

Playing to a scratchy two-under-70 in the third round, Lahiri stayed atop the leader-board with a five stroke cushion over Raj Randhawa, who moved smoothly into second spot with an impressive 67 on Thursday.

H.S Kang had yet another consistent round to gain the third spot with a 71.

The third round proved to be tough for Lahiri. By his own admission Anirban played a very loose round.

The former Secunderabad-based amateur, who relocated to Bangalore to concentrate on his golf, started the day with a birdie on the first hole which was sunk from a good 15 feet from the pin.

A series of pars followed till Lahiri dropped a shot on the seventh. A birdie on the eighth repaired the damage and only two other birdies adorned Lahiri's card. The 13th and the 16th were easy two putts on the green. On the 14th Anirban missed a three- foot putt for par and yelled out.

The tension of watching Raj Randhawa steadily closing the gap was probably beginning to tell on the three-day leader of the tournament.

After pars on the first half, Randhawa cranked up his game to a different level on the back nine. Birdies on the 10th and 11th were followed with another on the 15th.

The best was yet to come. On the 16th, Raj began with a driver and next a four iron and on his third shot chipped into the hole from 80 yards for a phenomenal eagle.

The back nine was also bogey free as Raj entered the final round of an amateur tournament for the first time on the leader-board.

The scores:

203: Anirban Lahiri (66,67,70).

208: Raj Randhawa (71,70,67).

214: H.S Kang (69,74,71); 215: Moin Malak (70,74,71).

216: Simarjeet Singh (72,74,70), Saurabh Bahuguna (68,72,76), Chikkarangappa (71,71,74).

217: Prabagharan (71,74,72), Mithun Perera (69,73,75) and Arshdeep Tiwana (74,67,76).

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