Randhawa surrenders lead to Goosen, slips to 3rd spot in Shanghai

Shanghai, Nov 11 (UNI) It was perhaps the gushing breeze that took the wind out of his sail and a jittery Jyoti Randhawa, after his two-day stint at the top, surrendered his lead to South African Retief Goosen and slipped to the third place after the penultimate round of the HSBC Champions here today.

Randhawa began on a perfect note as he birdied his first two holes before falling back to nine-under with a double bogey at the par-four fifth and another dropped shot two holes later.

A couple of birdies on his way back could have set things right but dropping a shot each on the 12th and 17th saw Randhawa fall from the lead.

The Indian, however, looked visibly relieved now that he is no more at the lead and Goosen would feel the pressure.

''It takes a lot of weight off your shoulders. So I guess the pressure is on somebody else, so I'll go out and do my best tomorrow and see what happens,'' he said.

Goosen, on the other hand, was happy after notching five birdies in his round.

''I'm feeling quite comfortable with the course. Today was a tough day to get through. I probably thought 1-under or somewhere around there would be a good round, but to shoot 3-under is a good, solid round, so overall I'm very happy,'' he said.

Among Randhawa's compatriots, Jeev Milkha Singh soared to tied eighth with one-under 71 to take his three-day tally to six-under 210, even though Shiv Kapur (212) lost a few rungs and slid to tied 17th after going two-over 74. But for the double bogey on par-third sixth hole, Jeev, who sank four birdies against a bogey, could have finished even higher the ladder.

Seasoned Gaurav Ghei also gained a few notches and turned in a card of 71 to move up to tied 19th at three-under 213.

After equalling the course record yesterday, World number one Tiger Woods, for once, looked cagey today and he opened his round with a bogey after a wayward drive off the opening hole. He, however, followed it with his second eagle of the week but eventually went on to post one-over 73 for a three-day total of 209 to be tied for fifth at the Sheshan International Golf course.

Leading third round score: 204: Retief Goosen (68-67-69) 205: Yang Yong-eun (66-72-67) 206: Jyoti Randhawa (65-69-72) 207: Marc Warren (66-71-70) 209: Tiger Woods (72-64-73), Paul Casey (73-68-68), Francesco Molinary (72-68-69) 210: Henrik Stenson (76-64-70), Jeev Milkha Singh (70-69-71), Padraig Harrington (67-70-73) Robert Karlsson (73-68-69), Luke Donald (70-69-71), John Bickerton (68-71-71) 211: Bradley Dredge (71-70-70), K J Choi (68-72-71), Johan Edfors (68-74-69) 212: Nick O'Hern (72-69-71) and Shiv Kapur (71-67-74) UNI XC AY PM BS1516