Six-stroke cushion for Arjun Singh

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, NOV. 3. On a day when he played flawless golf, with a birdie to open and finish, Arjun Singh also had to reconcile with a bogey, his first after an unblemished run of 52 holes, in the Honda-Siel PGA championship at the Delhi Golf Club course on Saturday.

The Delhi-pro fired the best card of the day, a five- under 67, to increase his overall lead to six strokes by the end of the third round of the Rs. 30 lakh tournament. The way Arjun Singh has played for three days, the title looks certain to be in his grasp by Sunday afternoon.

Second-placed Uttam Singh Mundy was six strokes behind Arjun Singh but the former seemed to have virtually dislodged Mukesh Kumar from the title race. Much was expected from Mukesh, the PGA Order of Merit leader, but a triple bogey on the par-4 10th pushed him down. Mundy carded a round of 68 to take his aggregate to 10-under 206, while Mukesh was a stroke below after he completed the round in 71.

Even as Mundy moved up by one place, the lead group remained the same for the final day. The Mhow-based Mukesh Kumar was on 207, two strokes better than the duo of Harmeet Kahlon and Sweden's Daniel Chopra.

Defending champion Jyoti Randhawa could not improve on his putting. After carding back-to-back 71s, Randhawa came up with a round of 70 which placed him joint seventh with Shiv Prakash at four-under 212.

Despite taking a six-stroke lead going into the final day, Arjun Singh was cautious about early celebrations. ``A six- shot lead at the DGC is nothing. If something goes wrong at the beginning Mundy and Mukesh can still give me a chase,'' Arjun Singh said of how just one wayward shot off the tee can ruin anyone's chances.

Arjun Singh played precision golf today. From the tee, he found the centre of the fairway with ease while Mukesh and Mundy strayed into the jungles on a couple of holes. Arjun birdied the par-4 15th to go 16-under for the tournament.

After he had parred on the par-4 16th, Arjun had the distinction of playing 52 holes without a bogey. But his streak of bogey-free play ended on the par-3 17th when he landed into the left bunker from the tee and misjudged the depth of the sand. Arjun overshot as he came out of the bunker and there was no way he could save par.

``I hit a bad line to get into the bunker and then I failed to judge the depth of the sand,'' Arjun explained about his bogey on the 17th hole.

Earlier in the day, Arjun had hit a perfect tee shot with a seven-iron on the par-3 fifth. A hole-in-one on this hole would have meant a Honda Accord car. The ball, however, lipped the edge of the hole and eventually settled a few inches away from it, to Arjun's chagrin. Arjun birdied easily, but a prize, three times bigger than the winner's cheque of Rs. 4.86 lakh, had been lost. ``There's still tomorrow,'' Arjun said.

Arjun still persisted with the three-wood for his tee shots while others used drivers on the par-5 holes. ``The strategy seems to be working fine for me and I would like to maintain it for the final day,'' he said adding that it was by far his best performance for the three rounds in any tournament.

Twice-winner Uttam Singh Mundy was not ready to give up easily. ``I am not going to leave him (Arjun Singh) alone. Since he is playing flawlessly, I've got to play really well to catch up with him,'' Mundy said. Mundy was at his jovial best when he described Arjun's missed hole-in-one at the fifth hole. ``He sat in the car and came out,'' Mundy said.

The scores: Arjun Singh (64, 69, 67) 200; Uttam Singh Mundy (68, 70, 68) 206; Mukesh Kumar (66, 70, 71) 207; Harmeet Kahlon (69, 71, 69) and Daniel Chopra (70, 69, 70) 209; Rohtas Singh (69, 70, 72) 211; Jyoti Randhawa (71, 71, 70) and Shiv Prakash (68, 71, 73) 212; Ashok Kumar (A) (76, 68, 69), Vijay Kumar (72, 71, 70) and Digvijay Singh (70, 69, 74) 213; Mohd. Islam (74, 72, 68), A.J. Coetsee (RSA) (73, 73, 68), Gaurav Ghei (69, 74, 71), Keshav Mishra (A) (73, 67, 74) and Amritinder Singh (70, 69, 75) 214, Rafiq Ali (72, 68, 75) 215; Vivek Bhandari (74, 71, 71) and Simarjeet Singh (68, 72, 76) 216.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Bright start to Assam's campaign
Next     : Dahan battles to title victory