New Delhi: Veteran Mukesh Kumar took the sole lead with three under 69 on Day Three of the Panasonic Open India golf tournament on Saturday as the weather-hit tournament reduced to 58-holes.
South Korea’s Lee Sung, a one-time winner on Tour but not since 2007, struck the second hole-in-one in his career with an eight-iron from 171 yards on the par-three fifth hole at the venerable Delhi Golf Club.
The cut fell at four-over-148 and there were as many as 42 Indians among the 73 who made the cut. Of the other Indians in contention, Khalin Joshi and Shankar Das, who shot 71 and 67 respectively, closed Round Two in joint-second place at six-under-138 along with Sri Lankan Mithun Perera and Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond.
Another bunch of Indians, Shubhankar Sharma (68), Rashid Khan (72), Chiragh Kumar (68), Jyoti Randhawa (72) and Deepinder Singh Kullar (66) were all tied for sixth place at five-under-139, three shots behind the leader. Apart from realising his dream of winning his first international title, Mukesh is also in line to become the oldest first-time winner on the Asian Tour. He mixed five birdies with two bogeys on Saturday to claim the sole lead.
“I was just focusing on my game today and not thinking too much about the scores. My putting did the job for me as the percentage of the left to right putt conversion was higher than the first round. However, I’d look to further improve on that. The first three birdies raised my confidence a great deal,” Mukesh said.
Round One joint leaders Randhawa and Khan, both returned scores of 72 to drop to tied sixth. The duo will be strong contenders on the final day along with defending champion Chiragh and Sharma both of whom fired scores of 68 in round two to rise from tied 19th to tied sixth. Jeev Milkha Singh (75-73) who was tied 64th just squeezed inside the cut line.
