Vijay Kumar keeps Alis at bay

NEW DELHI, NOV 25: Vijay Kumar, who won six times last year and is gunning for a third successive Mahindra Player of the Year award, has ...

NEW DELHI, NOV 25: Vijay Kumar, who won six times last year and is gunning for a third successive Mahindra Player of the Year award, has not tasted victory since winning since the opening event of the Wills Sport Indian Golf Tour almost four months ago. But a flawless round put him back in business and in the familiar lead role. In the process he stopped the Alis from making the opening day a family affair.

The stockily built Vijay had a bogey free round and his putting towards the evening made the greens look like a sieve as he sank birdies at will. He had four birdies on his last five holes 8212; 14th to 18th besides which his 20-foot putt on the 15th stopped breathtakingly short 8212; to come in six under and join Rafiq Ali at the top of the leaderboard on the first day of the Rs 28-lakh Honda-Siel Golf at the DGC. His back nine came in 31.

A tentative Ali Sher, no relative of the other Alis, despite all problems managed a three-under 69 and his five birdies included one super 40-footer on the third. Heshared the fourth place with Monish Bindra and Arjun Singh.

The leader on the PGAI Order of Merit, Amritinder Singh, winner last week in Chandigarh, had a dismal day with three over 75, but defending champion Uttam Singh Mundy, who was two over after seven holes recovered well to finish two under for the day.

Feroz Ali did even better after being four over at the turn and managed to finish at par. Gaurav Ghei had the misfortune of seeing the ball lip out no less than five times and he finished with two over. But as he said with a smile, 8220;tommorrow is another day.8221;

Scores: 66: Rafiq Ali amp; Vijay Kumar; 67: Raju Ali; 69: Ali Sher, Arjun Singh, Monish Bindra; 70: Uttam Singh Mundy and Vishal Singh; 71: Minky Barbora, Sanjay Kumar, Shiv Prakash; 72: Amit Dube, Digvijay Singh, Feroz Ali, Jumman, Mohd. Nawab, N Srinivasan and Ranjit Singh.

Amateurs: 73: Ashok Kumar; 76: Saurabh Bahuguna; Shiv Kapur and Suleiman Ali.

Jeev cards one-under 71

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Ibusuki, JAPAN: Jeev Milkha Singhcontinued his good run on the Japanese leg of his sojourn in Asia with a one-under 71 at the Casio World Open in Ibusuki, Japan. Jeev, who finished 21st in the Acom International and then 27th in the Dunlop Phoenix last week has thus stuck to his schedule after some speculation that he might skip the Casio event for the Hong Kong Open, where three other Indians, Arjun Atwal, Jyoti Randhawa and Amandeep Johl are playing.