Randhawa squanders lead but stays in title hunt

Singapore, Mar 10 (UNI) Jyoti Randhawa missed an easy birdie putt on the last hole to squander his pole position and slip to sole third after the overnight leader carded an eventful even-par penultimate round at the 1.1 million dollar Singapore Masters here today.

After enjoying a smooth going for two days at the par-72 Languana National Golf and Country Club, Randhawa had a roller-coaster ride under tough scoring conditions as he nullified his two eagles and as many birdies with three bogeys and a triple bogey on the par-three 11th.

Very much in the hunt nonetheless, Randhawa, 11-under 205, goes into the last round just a stroke off the lead held jointly by Englishman Gary Lockerbie (69) and Wen-Chong Liang (68) of China.

Randhawa's illustrious compatriot and last year's Asian Tour Order of the Merit winner Jeev Milkha Singh overcame a horrible start to card a decent two-under 70 and jump to tied 32nd spot. Jeev now aggregates four-under 212 in three rounds played so far.

Meanwhile, the tough Masters course took its toll on Gaurav Ghei and Rahil Gangjee both of whom knocked themselves out of contention with an identical and nightmarish 77. Ghei dropped to tied 58th from an overnight eighth while Gangjee was futher down at tied 67th.

UNI