Date:01/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/01/stories/2008030154132000.htm

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Sport - Golf

Shiv Kapur jumps into joint lead

Rakesh Rao

Montgomerie, Poulter, Chowrasia fail to make the cut

— Photo: S. Subramanium

PULLING AHEAD: Shiv Kapur had a good day and is in joint lead.

GURGAON: A bout of viral may have drained Shiv Kapur of his energies but could do little to his never-say-die spirit.

For someone, who almost did not tee-off on Thursday, Kapur missed a possible birdie on the final hole on Friday but a seven-under 65 was still good enough to give him a share of the lead at the half-way stage of the $2.57 million Johnnie Walker Classic at the DLF Golf and Country Club here on Friday.

Kapur joined Australia’s Unho Park at 10-under 134 after coming dangerously close to landing his shots in the water hazard on the last two holes.

Though overnight leader Shamim Khan almost did not make the ‘cut’ that came at one-under 143 just about managed to make it on the bubble after dropping three shots on the last two holes, it was Jyoti Randhawa who kept the Indian spirits high for the better part of the day. He shared the third spot with a flawless 65, something that Kapur was to match later.

“Sometimes it is better when you’re sick because you’re not thinking so much about technique or about external factors. You just sort of try to get through the round and you tend to concentrate on one shot at a time rather than look at the bigger picture and that worked in my favour,” was how Kapur summed up his play on the first two days.

For the record, Kapur shot an ‘eagle’ after hitting his 3-iron to about 12 feet from the ‘cup’ on the sixth hole. He had three birdies before taking the turn at 31. He added two more birdies and saved a couple of more putts on his way in.

Day’s best

On a day when Englishman Phillip Archer’s day’s best 64 was pushed to the background, Unho Park put his struggle with his swing aside to be the first player to go 10-under.

“I had a pretty solid ball striking day. Putted well and I’m happy with the way I hit the ball today,” said joint leader who missed the ‘cut’ in the SAIL Open last week at Greater Noida.

Randhawa, who sank four birdies on the back-nine, including three in a row, played solidly right through after starting from the 10th hole.

Playing on his home course, Randhawa admitted being under pressure yesterday after shooting a 70 and “decided what to do today. Yesterday, my putting wasn’t that hot and today the putter got hot.”

In all, 12 Indians made the ‘cut’ and of the remaining six, Indian Masters champion S. S. P. Chowrasia was the biggest casualty.

Some of the prominent names missing the weekend action include England’s Ian Poulter (76, 68), Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie (74, 76) and Indian Masters runner-up Ireland’s Damien McGrane (74, 75).

The scores (Indians unless stated):

Shiv Kapur (69, 65), Unho Park (Aus) (68, 66) 134; Taichiro Kiyota (Jpn) (68, 67), Jyoti Randhawa (70, 65) 135; Phillip Archer (Eng) (72, 64), Jose Manuel Lara (Esp) (69, 67), Adam Scott (Aus) (68, 68), Graeme Storm (Aus) (70, 66) 136; Wen-Teng Lin (Tpe) (70, 67), Adam Bland (Aus) (69, 68), Greg Chalmers (Aus) (68, 69), Richard Finch (Eng) (72, 65) 137.

Other Indians: Jeev Milkha Singh (68, 70) 138; Arjun Singh (69, 70), Rahil Gangjee (68, 71) 139; Digvijay Singh (70, 70) 140; Gaganjeet Bhullar (72, 69), Arjun Atwal (69, 72) 141; Gaurav Ghei (70, 72), Rahul Ganapathy (73, 69), Mukesh Kumar (73, 69) 142; Shamim Khan (67, 76) 143; S. S. P. Chowrasia (72, 73) 145; Ashok Kumar (79, 69) 148; C. Muniyappa (75, 76) 151; Vijay Kumar (75, 77) 152; Vivek Bhandari (78, 77) and Harmeet Kahlon (73, 82) 155.