Vijay Kumar, Randhawa share the lead

Jyoti Randhawa carded a two under par 70 to share the lead with Vijay Kumar, who had a par 72 round, at the end of the third and penultimate round in the Royal Challenge Grand Prix golf in Noida on Friday.

Both Randhawa and Vijay Kumar have a total of two under 214 in three rounds but a stroke behind them is Mukesh Kumar, holder of the course record of eight-under 64, with a total of one over 215. He shot one over 73 in this round.

Jyoti, whose first two round scores were 71, 73 and was lying joint second on Thursday, jumped to top place. Vijay Kumar, with a par round, managed to again remain on tied top position.

On Thursday he was tied with Mohd. Islam.

Though the heavy fog and misty conditions delayed the start by more than two hours, golfers produced better scores as compared to the previous rounds. Four players brought in two under 70 and four others carded one under 71 for a total of eight sub par scores, the best so far in three days.

Sanjay Kumar, who dropped a stroke each on the 15th and 18th holes, shared the fourth place with Gaurav Ghei. Sanjay had a par round for the day, while Ghei came in with one over-73 despite a double bogey on the par-3 16th hole.

In the sixth place is Kolkata's Uttam Mundy, who shot three over 75 for three over 219.

Devender Patel, one of the four players to bring in two under 70, was at joint seventh place along with veteran Rohtas Singh and Ranjit Singh, the first round leader, and the only one to crack 70 in this event so far.

In the amateur section, Raj Singh overtook Jasjit Singh as he brought in a one-under 71 and took his total to 10-over 226, while Jasjit Singh is at 11-over 227.

Leading scores (54 holes): 214: Jyoti Randhawa (71, 73, 70), Vijay Kumar (71, 72, 72); 217: Mukesh Kumar (70, 74, 73); 218: Sanjay Kumar (73, 73, 72), Gaurav Ghei (73, 72, 73); 219: Uttam Singh Mundy (72, 72, 75); 220: D Patel (77, 73, 70), Rohtas Singh (72, 76, 72), Ranjit Singh (69, 76, 75); 221: Jaiveer Virk (71, 75, 75); Ali Sher (72, 74,75); 222: Bhoop Singh (74, 76, 72); 223: Vivek Bhandari (75, 78, 70), Rahil Gangjee (77, 75, 71), Shamim Khan (74, 78, 71), Jumman (77, 73, 73);224: Arjun Atwal (77, 78, 70); Shiv Prakash (70, 74, 78); 225: Amrtinder Singh (77, 73, 75).