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Chowrasia, Atwal joint fifth

Rakesh Rao

Jacquelin snatches one-shot lead; Ghei, Els recover well

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

IN THE VAN: France’s Raphael Jacquelin grabbed a one-stroke lead in the Indian Masters golf tournament on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Seldom has the Delhi Golf Club course been in such a punishing mood. Chilly, gusty conditions combined with grainy greens tested the professionals to the hilt and left very little by way of margin for error. For a change, the elements dictated the course of action on Saturday.

On a day when sub-par card was at a premium and the lead changed hands with every missed putt, playing partners for this weekend, S.S.P. Chowrasia and Arjun Atwal topped the leaderboard by turns. Though some of their good work stood undone towards the end of the third round, they stayed in title-contention by sharing the fifth spot as the $2.5 million Emaar MGF Indian Masters promised an exciting finale on Sunday.

The fact that Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin’s par round was enough to make him the new leader underlines the degree of difficulty offered by the course on Saturday even for the previous day’s front-runners.

Jacquelin, with a three-round tally of 210, enjoyed a one-stroke lead. Spain’s Jose Manuel Lara, whose lone birdie made him one of the nine players to shoot a sub-par card on this day, overnight leader Ireland’s Damien McGrane and his playing partner on this day, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell were at 211.

A fair reflection of the tough conditions could be gauged from the fact that the day’s best card was a three-under 69, brought by a desperate Ernie Els.

His best effort in three rounds set him up for a respectable finish as he joined Gaurav Ghei, Digvijay Singh and three others at the 10th spot.

Though European Tour regulars Jyoti Randhawa and Shiv Kapur continued to struggle, Atwal and Chowrasia stayed within two shots off the leader to keep alive hopes of an Indian winner on Sunday afternoon. In addition, a last-day charge from Ghei and Digvijay can considerably raise the Indian interest in the final round.

In fact, Chowrasia could have well ended the day in joint lead had he not three-putted the final hole from under five feet. Strange as may sound, Chowrasia and Atwal were the only two players from those in pursuit of the title to double-bogey on this day.

Eventful journey

Chowrasia, who took the turn at two-under following a self-confessed “fluke” birdie from the bunker on the third hole, double-bogeyed the 10th before three more birdies and two bogeys on the back-nine made it an eventful homeward journey.

Atwal, who like Chowrasia, started with a birdie, double-bogeyed the par-3 seventh hole before two successive birdies on the back-nine were nullified by consecutive bogeys.

Ghei, whose chances can never be discounted on his home course, shot an identical 35, including two birdies and a bogey, on either side of the turn to move up 21 places from his overnight tied-31st position.

The scores:

Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) (69, 69, 72) 210; Jose Manuel Lara (Esp) (68, 72, 71), Graeme McDowell (NIR) (69, 69, 73) and Damien McGrane (Ire) (67, 69, 75) 211; Arjun Atwal (70, 70, 72), S. S. P. Chowrasia (70, 71, 71) 212; Hendrik Buhrmann (RSA) (69, 69, 75), Maarten Lafeber (Ned) (69, 71, 73), Ross McGowan (Eng) (72, 71, 70) 213; Ross Bain (Sco) (71, 71, 72), Benn Barham (Eng) (69, 71, 74), Thomas Bjorn (Den) (68, 72, 74), Ernie Els (RSA) (75, 70, 69), Gaurav Ghei (75, 69, 70) and Digvijay Singh (70, 70, 74) 214.

Other Indians: Randhir Singh Ghotra (74, 73, 70), Jyoti Randhawa (65, 77, 75) 217; Amandeep Johl (73, 71, 76), Ashok Kumar (72, 73, 75) 220; Shiv Kapur (68, 78, 76) 222; Shamim Khan (73, 74, 76), C. Muniyappa (69, 77, 77) 223; Rahul Ganapathy (76, 71, 78), Ali Sher (77, 70, 78) 225 and Harmeet Kahlon (70, 75, 83) 228.

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