Gurbaaz soars to fourth, Digvijay tied 10th in Philippine

Manila, Feb 3 (UNI) Gurbaaz Mann jumped into contention for a top-five finish after carding an impressive four-under 68 to be fourth, while Digvijay Singh's poor three-over 75 saw him slip to the tied 10th spot after the penultimate round of the 3,00,000 dollar Philippine Open here today.

Gurbaaz, tied 36th spot after the second round yesterday, was one of the seven golfers who managed an under-par card on a tough day as he returned his best card of the tournament to take his overall total to three-under 213.

The Indian is five shots off the pace of leader Frankie Minoza, who returned a 67 taking his total to nine-under 207. The local favourite led by a shot against China's Liang Wen-chong (71).

Gurbaaz started with a first hole birdie and continued his fine form to gain shots on the fourth, seventh and eighth to make the turn at four-under.

However, his backward journey did not get off to a very smooth start as he dropped a shot on the 12th but, unlike in previous two rounds, the Indian did not let things slip and sank in a birdie on the 14th to round off a satisfactory day.

In contrast, Digvijay came up with his worst in the event and his 75 took his tally to an even-par 216. Digvijay made a nightmarish start as he dropped bogeys on the first two holes and followed this with two more bogeys on the fourth and ninth.

He failed to gain a single shot in the front-nine and the three birdies that he struck in his backward journey could not compensate for the poor front-nine.

Among other Indians in the fray, Uttam Singh Mundy (76) dropped to the tied 47th with a total of five-over 221, while Arjun Singh (75) improved to the tied 63rd position with eight-over 224 after three rounds.

UNI