Chiranjeev tied at fourth place

NEW DELHI, JUNE 23. India's Chiranjeev Milkha Singh suffered back nine blues as he returned a card of level-par 72 and was tied for the fourth spot, on the penultimate day of the 10-million Yen Mizuno Open golf championship at the Seto Nakai Course in Okayama, Japan, on Saturday.

Having returned with a confidence-boosting round of 66 on Friday, Chiranjeev made good start early on Saturday and was three-under for the day after 10 holes. He dropped three shots thereafter for an aggregate of eight-under 208. He was tied for fourth place with three others, Christian Penna of the US, Eduardo Herera of Argentina and Tomohiro Kondou of Japan.

The 29-year-old Indian began the third round making birdies on the par-5 second and the par-4 seventh to be two-under after the outward nine. A birdie on par-4 10th helped him to 11- under for the tournament and he looked in good position before luck deserted him. He bogeyed 13th, 16th and 17th to blot his chances on the home stretch.

The Mizuno Open is also called the `Gateway to the Open' because it is the last tournament before the five direct sports reserved for the Japanese Tour players are announced. A victory here translates into a direct berth in the prestigious British Open Golf championship.

The scores (all Japanese unless stated): 1. Hidemichi Tanaka (66, 69, 68) 203; 2. Kenichi Kuboya (68, 66, 73) and Kazumasa Sakaitani (70, 66, 71) 207; 4. Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) (70, 66, 72), Tomohiro Kondou (71, 70, 67), Christian Pena (US) (69, 71, 68) and Eduardo Herera (Arg) (73, 67, 68) 208; 8. Nobuhito Sato (72, 68, 69), Hiroshi Tominaga (71, 67, 71), Tetsuji Hiratsuka (69, 69, 71) and Mitsuhiro Tateyama (71, 66, 72) 209; 12. Kenneth Druce (US) (69, 70, 71) and Akihito Yokoyama (70, 70, 70) 210.

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