Randhawa four strokes behind

Randhawa was four strokes away from the leader Gerry Norquist, who kept his nerves after form deserted him early in the day, resulting in a hat-trick of bogies on the first three holes. The American, who won this championship way back in 1993, finished the day at three-over 75, but still led the field at seven-under 209. One stroke behind were the defending champion Edward Fryatt of England and American Shaun Micheel, the 1998 Ericsson Singapore Openwinner.

Randhwa, who is sponsored by Andhra Pradesh Rayons, had a nightmarish start. His drive went into the left tree from where he entered the bunker with his second shot. Randhawa, who has been complaining that he is not playing well off the bunker, duffed his third shot and just about managed to come out of the bunker. He duffed his next shot as well, before making a chip-putt to straightaway slide down to one-over for the tournament.

However, he kept his nerves and kept parring the holes, till he reached a dream scratch from the 9th to 11th. He made bridies on all the par-4 holes, before sinking a magical 20-footer left-to night putt, which had a break of at least 8 feet, in the par-3, 17th. He could have gone four-under, but his 20-footer attempt on the par-5 18th hole grazed the side of the hole and rolled out.

Daniel Chopra, the India-born Swede, set a putting record on the European PGA Tour when he required his putter just 22 times to complete the round. That was the best this season and justtwo short of the all-time record of 20, made by Padraig Harrington during the final round of the Heinken Classic last year. He was good with the driver as well, missing just one fairway. But all the impressive statistics came to a naught as he struggled with his middle irons and missed nine greens in a one-under 71 round that put him level-par 216 for the tournament.

Scores (after 54 holes):

210: Gerry Notquist; 211: Shaun Micheel, Edward Fryatt; 212: Bob May, Christian Chemock; 213: Choi Kyung Ju, Dalex Gejka, Wang Ter-Chang; 214: Jyoti Randhawa, Paul McGinley, Jarmo Sadelim, Greg Owen, Padraig Harrington, Craig Hainline.