Randhawa blasts into lead

Jyoti Randhawa scorched the course with a superb seven-under 65 on day two of the Rs 850,000 SRF Open golf championship to open up a five-stroke lead over his nearest pursuers at the par-72, 6,779-yard Delhi Golf Club course on Wednesday.

Randhawa's 65 took his tally to ten-under 134.

In joint second place were Delhi's Arjun Singh and Lucknow's Sanjay Kumar at five-under 139. Calcutta's Rafiq Ali was placed joint-fourth with Mukesh Kumar at four-under 140.

Overnight leader, Indrajit Bhalotia of Calcutta slipped to tied sixth place at three-under 141 along with city mate Uttam Singh Mundy and Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia. The other overnight leader and local hero Ali Sher slipped to tied 11th place after a round of 74 today. Vijay Kumar and Arjun Atwal were also at one-under 143.

The cut was applied at eight-over 152 with 53 professionals and six amateurs making it to the final two rounds.

Jyoti Randhawa is not too used to sharing the limelight with anybody and today he ensured that he had it all to himself.

"I had a great round today. Everything went my way," said the two-time Hero Honda Masters winner.

Jyoti, who started and ended his round in style with eagles, carded four successive birdies on the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th holes with the efforts on the 9th and 11th resulting from excellent 25 feet putts.

However, a small little ant prevented what would have been a perfect round.

Randhawa dropped shots on the 16th and 17th and blamed it on an ant. "On the 16th, I had a weird feeling that there was an ant in my trouser. That made me too conscious and I muffed up the approach shot. Then on the 17th, eager to make up for the earlier bogey, I pulled my putt thereby failing to make a simple eight footer," said the Indian Open 2000 winner.

Arjun Singh's round of six-under 66 began with an eagle where a 3-wood, 3-wood combination saw him sink a difficult 20-footer. Playing only his second tournament on the Tour this season, after being out of action with a back injury, Arjun followed his first hole effort up with consecutive birdies on the 2nd and 3rd.

"I was on a roll at this stage," he said.

However, Arjun dropped shots on the 6th and 9th both from the center of the fairway. "After the bogey on the ninth, I decided to put the past behind me and concentrate on my back nine."

Concentrate he did, with a hat-trick of birdies on the 11th (a 20 feet effort), 12th and 13th, preceding a well sunk 25 feet birdie putt on the 15th and a birdie finish to his round. A dropped shot on the 14th, where he found the right bush was the only blemish on his back-nine card.

"My putting should take the credit for my round," added Arjun.

Sanjay Kumar returned an error free four-under 68 with a birdie start and finish to his round sandwiching two more birdies on the 7th and 14th. The stocky golfer’s birdie on the 1st was courtesy a 20 feet putt. On the 14th, he chipped to the edge of the green and proceed to sink the 10 footer, while good approach shots on the 7th and 18th left him with short six and eight feet putts which he successfully converted.

"This is probably the first time in my life when I have gone through a round with carding a single bogey," said Sanjay.

As regards his hitting he missed the fairway on only one occasion on the 10th, where he reached the green directly.

Rafiq Ali's day's score of five-under 67 fails to reflect his nightmarish outings on the greens. So for that matter does his round's putting tally of 26. The affable Rafiq missed as many as eight putts from five feet or less. It all started with a missed five feet birdie putt on the 1st and culminated in a his two putting from two feet on the 16th. Other wise Rafiq had an error free round including birdies on the 6th and 8th on his front nine and one on the 15th followed by a birdie-birdie finish to his round.

'Player of the Year' award winner for the ‘99-2000 season, Mukesh Kumar returned a four-under 68 card containing birdies on the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 10th and 11th. His lone bogey came on the 7th.

Vijay Kumar displayed a welcome return to form today, with his five-under 67 studded with as many as four birdies and an eagle. The only blemish in his round was a bogey, resulting from a missed four-feet par putt on the 5th.

Ashok leads amateurs: Ashok Kumar led the amateur field with a two-day aggregate of three-under 141 after submitting a one-under 71 card on the second day. That gave him a four-stroke advantage over mentor Amit Luthra, who added a 75 to his overnight 70.

SCORES (after 36 holes): 134 _ Jyoti Randhawa (69,65); 139 _ Arjun Singh (73,66), Sanjay Kumar (71,68); 140 _ Rafiq Ali (73,67), Mukesh Kumar (72,68); 141 _ Uttam Singh Mundy (72,69), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (71,70), Indrajit Bhalotia (69,72); 142 _ Shiv Prakash (72,70), Yusuf Ali (70,72); 143 _ Vijay Kumar (76,67), Feroz Ali (73,70), Pappan (73,70), Arjun Atwal (71,72), Vishal Singh (71,72), Ali Sher (69,74); 144 _ Suleman Ali (73,71), Asgar Ali (71,73); Amateurs: 141 _ Ashok Kumar (70,71); 145 _ Amit Luthra (70,75); 149 _ Jasjeet Singh (76,73); 150 _ Harinder Gupta (77,73)