Mukesh on brink of TNGF Open title

Mukesh Kumar gave himself a three-stroke cushion and a real chance of winning his first title of the season after returning a two-under 70 -- to continue in the lead at 11-under 205 -- after the penultimate round of the Rs One million TNGF Open, the fifth leg of the Hero Honda Golf Tour, being played at the par-72, 6,654-yard Cosmo-TNGF golf course.

Three strokes behind the leader is Lucknow’s Sanjay Kumar, whose round of one-under 71 handed him his tally of eight-under 208. The dangerous duo of Feroz Ali (Calcutta) and Digvijay Singh (Meerut) was tied-third at six-under 210 while another Calcuttan SSP Chowrasia occupied the fifth position at 211. Rahul Ganapathy (Mysore), Gaurav Ghei (Delhi), Magan Subba Rao (Bombay) and Uttam Singh Mundy (Calcutta) were tied-sixth at 213.

Mukesh Kumar has an awesome reputation on the Hero Honda Golf Tour. Accused just two years ago of lacking the temperament to play under pressure, Mukesh has since gone on to become one of the mentally most resilient golfers on Tour.

"When Mukesh is in the lead, the rest of us know we really need to play well to catch up with him as he will not give us a whiff of a chance on his own," says Sanjay Kumar, with an aura of respect for the top ranked golfer on the Indian circuit.

"I am pleased with the way I am playing. The opening round 63 set things up nicely for me and from there I knew that I had to do something really stupid to slip out of contention," said Mukesh.

"However, this is golf. I still have eighteen holes to play. Anything can happen," added the 31-year old with a touch of modesty.

Mukesh’s third round was set in motion with birdies on the 1st and 2nd. Another birdie on the 4th saw the golfer sit pretty at three-under after four holes.

"I was pretty determined to keep the birdies coming in but unfortunately they dried up after the 4th hole," he said after playing all but the 15th hole to par. Mukesh bogeyed the par-4 15th. "I am under pressure but that is when I play my best golf so Sanjay had better watch out tomorrow," he added threateningly.

Sanjay Kumar, in quest of his third career title, played to one-under on Friday. The Lucknow Golf Club pro birdied the 2nd and his only other eventful holes thereafter proved to be the 16th which he birdied and the 17th where he dropped his only shot of the day.

"My game is back in place after a long-long time. The feel is there and both my long and short games are as good as they have ever been," said the winner of the ’98 Color Plus Open in this very city.

"Mukesh Kumar is a dangerous player but the way I look at is that he is the leader and the pressure is on him. I plan to continue playing the way I have played for the past three days. That is the best I can do. Whether I win or not tomorrow is not in my hands," he said

Feroz Ali has thus far been playing the part of the tortoise from the legendary hare and tortoise tale. The flashy golfer who played percentage golf to return three straight scores of two-under 70 however, plans to go on the aggressive on Saturday.

"I am an attacking golfer and I am certainly going for a win," said the ’98 Indian Open winner.

Second best is not good and Mukesh Kumar is not too far away. Five strokes can be covered up for in two holes," he said.

On Friday, Feroz started the day with back-to-back birdies with his third birdie coming on the 7th. He went on to drop shots on the 8th and 9th to enter his back-nine at one-under. His return journey was studded with a lone birdie on the 16th.

"The greens are improving everyday and we can expect a fine contest tomorrow," he said after returning 27 putts.

"In am not too pleased with my round," said a modest Digvijay of his round of 71.

The 30-year old golfer made a poor start to his round with a bogey. He went on to bogey the 5th with his front-nine birdies coming on the 3rd, 6th and 7th. His fourth birdie coming on the 12th was undone by a bogey on the 17th.

"I could have easily played better but my putts just didn’t drop today," said the golfer, whose only career win came at the BPGC Open, Mumbai in March 1999.

Yudhvir, Meiyappan jointly lead amateurs: CV Yudhvir with a one-over 73, moved up to share the lead with overnight leader Gurunath Meiyappan at eight-over 224. Meiyappan returned a 77 today. L Selvaduri was placed third at 225.

SCORES (after 54 holes) : 205_Mukesh Kumar(63,72,70); 208_Sanjay Kumar(66,71,71); 210_Feroz Ali(70,70,70), Digvijay Singh(69,70,71); 211_Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia(67,71,73); 213_Uttam Mundy(72,70,71), Gaurav Ghei(69,73,71), Magan Subba Rao(73,68,72), Rahul Ganapathy(67,73,73); 214_Amit Dube(72,72,70), V Wilson(68,75,71); 215_Basad Ali(69,74, 72), Shiv Prakash(71,71,73), Ajay Gupta(69,71,75), Rafiq Ali(69,68,78).

Amateurs: 224_CV Yudhvir(75,76,73), Gurunath Meiyappan(75,72,77); 225_L Selvadurai(74,74,77).