Sports, Mukesh tie for ONGC Noida Golf lead

Noida, Apr 27 (UNI) Kolkata's Uttam Mundy fired a superb four-under 68 to jump into the lead alongside veteran Mukesh Kumar after the penultimate round of the Rs 10-lakh ONGC-Noida Open Golf here today.

The leaders tallied 12-under 204 with Mukesh firing a 70 despite struggling with his short game.

Delhi's Arjun Singh moved to three strokes behind the leaders at nine-under 207, while Kolkata's Feroz Ali was placed fourth at 208.

The day's best card was brought in by Chandigarh's Harinder Gupta whose career best seven-under 65, placed him in the tied fifth position along with Delhi's Ashok Kumar and amateur Jasjeet Singh of Noida at 209.

Meanwhile, Kolkata's Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia slipped to the eighth place with a round of 75 at an aggregare of 210.

This morning Mundy, from two shots behind the leader caught-up and surged ahead after the sixth to lead till the 17th. Mukesh meanwhile, twice slipped to nine-under before carding a splurge of birdies to catch-up with Mundy.

On the first, his driver, three-wood combo saw him nail a 12-feet putt while on the second he holed a seven footer for birdie. Mundy went on to birdie the fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth interspersed by a bogey on the eighth saw him make the turn at five-under.

A bogey on the 12th where Mundy overshot the green was followed by a birdie on the 15th. However The 17th saw Mundy bogey after finding the left trees with his driver.

Mukesh who started with a birdie, failed to birdie another hole in his outward journey. Instead, he dropped shots on the fifth and sixth and then another bogey followed on the 12th.

However, he pulled up his socks in nick of time to reel off a series of birdies on the 13 th, 14th, 16th and 17th.

In the amateur section, GAIL employee Jasjeet Singh fired a career best round of six-under 66 to leap frog into the amateur lead and tied fifth position in the tournament overall at a tally of seven-under 209. Praveen Kumar was placed second at 215.

Score (after 54 holes): 204 Uttam Mundy, Mukesh Kumar, 207 Arjun Singh, 208 Feroz Ali, 209 Harinder Gupta, Ashok Kumar, Jasjeet Singh, 210 Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia, 211 Rafick Ali, Vijay Kumar, Amardip Sinh Malik.

UNI HSB DH RK1720