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Shiv Prakash leads Wills Northern Open

Shiv Prakash blasted his way into the lead with a five-under 65 to steal the top spot from Sanjay Kumar with a tally of seven-under 203 after three rounds at the Rs 10-lakh Wills Northern Open, the ninth leg of the Wills Sport Golf Tour’s 2000-2001 season, being played at the par-70, 6,332-yard, Lucknow Club Golf course.

Three spots behind the leader at joint second spot on third round of Wills Northern Open were Mukesh Kumar, Bhoop Singh and Uttam Singh Mundy with an aggregate of four-under 206.

Overnight leader Sanjay Kumar along with DS Raghuvanshi, occupied the fifth spot at three-under 207 while Vijay Kumar and Rahul Ganapaty were joint-seventh at two-under 208.

Delhi’s Vinod Kumar had a field day with his round including as many as three eagles these coming on the 3rd, 14th and 16th. The golfer ended the day with a five-under 65, to settle at level-par 210 after three rounds. Vinod was positioned joint-11th at Wills Northern Leader’s Table at the end of the third day.

Shiv Prakash is getting better with age. The 41-year old Kanpur pro brought all his experience into play today to give himself a three-stroke cushion going into the final round. Shiv made his intentions clear early on with a birdie start to his round. Three more birdies on the 3rd, 5th and 9th placed him at four-under at the lemon-break. Continuing in the same vein on his back-nine, the second ranked golfer on this year’s Order of Merit, carded birdies on the 12th and 16th holes. However, what would have been an error-free round was ruined to an extent by an unfortunate bogey on the 18th after his tee shot found the water hazard.

"I played really well today, but the bogey on the final hole was avoidable," said Shiv Prakash. "I will win tomorrow, 100 %," he added. Incidentally Shiv Prakash holds the Wills Sport Golf Tour record of the lowest winning aggregate, a 25-under, which he recorded at the Tiger Sports Marketing Open at Faridabad only last month. Shiv's third round score at that event, a nine-under handed him the lowest individual score on the Tour, a record equalled by Sanjay Kumar on Friday.

Mukesh Kumar occupied the shared second spot for the second day in succession after carding a level-par 70. The top ranked golfer on last year’s Mahindra Rankings, had a birdie-par-birdie start to his round, before back-to-back bogeys on the 4th and 5th took away the early advantage gained. On his return journey, the Mhow based golfer carded a bogey on the 11th followed by a birdie on the following hole.

"My putting was terrible today. An under-par score would have made things so much easier for me tomorrow. Now I have to grind it out if I have to win,” said the ‘99-2000 season’s ‘Player of the Year’ award winner.

Uttam Singh Mundy carded birdies on the 3rd, 5th and 7th to enter his back-nine at a score of three-under. Starting his return journey with a bogey, the Calcutta based golfer regained lost ground with a birdie on the 12th, before sealing his day’s round with a dropped shot on the 18th.

Bhoop Singh, a local pro, struck form early on with consecutive birdies on the 2nd and 3rd. Bogeys on the 5th and 9th saw him make the turn at level-par. A birdie on the 12th was followed by his third dropped shot of the day on the 13th with a birdie on the 16th handing him his day’s score of one-under 69.

Overnight leader Sanjay Kumar was all out of sorts today. The Lucknow based golfer, who equalled the Wills Sport Golf Tour’s lowest ever recorded score on Friday after carding a nine-under 61, alternated between birdies and bogeys for most of the day. Sanjay's birdies came on the 3rd, 7th and 12th, with his dropped shots occurring on the 4th, 11th, 13th and 16th. A double bogey on the 15th made things that much worse for him. “The double bogey broke me completely,” said the winner of the ’98 Color Plus Open.

SCORES (after 54 holes): 203_Shiv Prakash(69,69,65); 206_Uttam Singh Mundy(67,71,68), Mukesh Kumar(66,70,70), Bhoop Singh(70,67,69); 207_DS Raghuvanshi(72,67,68), Sanjay Kumar(73,61,73); 208_Rahul Ganapathy(70,67,71), Vijay Kumar(69,67,72); 209_Yusuf Ali(71,68,70), Basad Ali(67,71,71); 210_Vinod Kumar(D) (71,74,65), Feroz Ali(71,70,69), Amish Jaitha(69,69,72) Amateurs: 240_Rishi Khanna(82,76,82); 241_Dhruv Seth(80,82,79); 247_A Khandelwal(80,85,82); 250_Dr Kashmir Singh(85,81,84)