Kalra, Das upstage leaders with 1-under

Overnight leaders, Amish Jaitha of Pune and Harjinder Singh Kang went for a toss today with nightmarish rounds of eight-over and seven-over, respectively.

Delhi’s Digvijay Singh had a steady round of one-over par 71 for a total of 217. He is a good four strokes behind the leaders but nevertheless will start with them tomorrow.

Though the leader group will be the cynosure of all eyes on the final day the likes of Chandigarh’s Harmeet Kahlon and Amit Luthra cannot be ignored. Kahlon, the reigning national amateurchampion, fired a not so satisfying round of three-over to take his total to 218. Luthra, a former champion carded a two-over par 72 and was lying two strokes behind Kahlon.

Defending champion Jaideep Patwardhan’s chances seem forlorn now. He slid down further today with a card of 74.

Today’s surprise card came from Tarun Sardesai. The Bangalore youth recorded his score in blue today after being two-under on his way out.

Kalra, who started with the second group of Kahlon and Digvijay played a much consistent round today. Apart from a couple of bogeys, the only major hiccup came on the 337 yard par-four seventh where he dropped two shots.Except for that the 24-year-old Lucknow golfer put on a steady overall display, missing the fairway only once.

Playing for only the second time in his amateur career in the leader group, Das was in his best form. The soft-spoken golfer, displayed no emotions, quite unlike others on the course, making as many as 13 regulations.The best part came on the par-five finalhole. A driver followed by a six-iron saw him land 30 feet from the pin which he putted for an eagle.

In an unfortunate incident, Delhi’s Jasjeet Singh was disqualified for picking the ball as it rolled into the cup on the seventh. The 20-year-old also had a card of 69 today.

LEADING SCORES (after 54 holes)

213: Sheeraz Kalra (71+73+69), Manav Das (71+73+69); 217: Digvijay Singh (74+72+71); 218: Harmeet Kahlon (71+74+73); 220: Amit Luthra (77+71+72), HS Kang (73+70+77); 221: Amish Jaitha (70+73+78), Tarun Sardesai (73+78+70),

Jaideep Patwardhan (76+72+74); 222: Mageswaran (73+75+74), Simarjeet Singh (75+75+72); 224: Rohit Goyal (80+70+74); 225: Rahul Ganapathy (77+75+73); 226: Gagan Verma (74+78+74), Jaiveer Singh (77+76+73)