Vijay Kumar widens lead

CHANDIGARH, March 28: Three professional golfers -- leader Vijay Kumar 213, Arjun Atwal 216 and Vivek Bhandari 217 -- were the star pe...

CHANDIGARH, March 28: Three professional golfers 8212; leader Vijay Kumar 213, Arjun Atwal 216 and Vivek Bhandari 217 8212; were the star performers on the penultimate day of the Rs 8 lakh Tai-Pan Mercedes Benz Chandigarh Open Golf Championship at the Chandigarh Golf Course here today. All the three played three-under par round 69 at par 72, 7202-yard course.Vijay Kumar 70, 74, 69 from Lucknow, after having bogeys on the first, third and five holes, regained his form. With his excellent approach shots, Vijay finished with a superb round of 69. after playing 54 holes.

Three strokes behind the leader were Arjun Atwal and Basad Ali with an identical score of 216. Atwal, who today returned one-par 71, could have done much more better had he not missed small birdies on the 7, 8th and 18 holes and he had a double bogey on the sixth and one over each on 13th and 15th. His birdies came on the 2, 3, 4, 16 and 17. Basad Ali played a consistent game. After going one over on the first and fifth while he scoredbirdies on the 2, 8, 13, 17 and 18.

Indian Classic Open winner Feroz Ali 70, 81, 75 was sharing 14th position with Gast Ram 78, 70, 78, Arjun Singh 75, 73, 78 and Shiv Prakash 74, 77, 75.

Jeev Milkha Singh has not fully adjusted his game. He missed eight small birdies today. Still he carded a par round 72 and was sharing 12th spot with Mohd Islam 77, 74, 73 and Amritinder Singh 76, 77, 71.

The leading scorers:

Professionals: 213 Vijay Kumar 70, 74, 69; 216 Arjun Atwal 73, 72, 71, Basad Ali 75, 72, 69; 217 Vivek Bhandari 74, 74, 69, Jyoti Randhawa 75, 70, 72; 220 Mukesh Kumar 71, 74, 75; 221 Indrajit Bhalotia 73, 77, 71, Rohtas Singh 71, 76, 74; 222 Amandeep Johl 73, 75, 74; 223 Akbar Ali 78, 74, 71; 224 Mohd Islam 77, 74, 73, Jeev Milkha Singh 77, 75, 72, Amritinder Singh 76, 77, 71; 225 Uttam Singh Mundy 77, 75, 73, Yusuf Ali 75, 75, 75; 226 Gast Ram 78, 70, 78, Arjun Singh 75, 73, 78 Shiv Prakash 74, 77, 75, Feroz Ali 70, 81, 75; 227 Ali Sher79, 76, 72 SSP Chaurasia 79, 73, 75.

Amateurs: 242 Sandeep Sandhu 82, 83, 77; 243 Simran Sethi 85, 83, 75; 246 Jaiveer Singh 82, 83, 81; 248 Sandy Lehal 81, 82, 85; 250 Alamgir S Grewal 82, 83, 85; 253 KS Brar 86, 79, 88; 257 RPS Sindhu 84, 84, 89, Ravibir Singh 82, 88, 87, Rohit Dagar 88, 85, 84 and KS Sibia 92, 81, 84.