Jeev slips despite steady round
Indian cards 2-under 70, lies tied 29th
Jeev Milkha Singh shot two-under 70 but still found himself falling three places at the end of the third round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic here on Saturday.
He shot 70 but still dropped to tied 29th, down from overnight 26th.
The Indian had three birdies on the front nine on fourth, fifth and seventh and one on 12th on the back stretch, but bogeys on sixth and 13th spoilt his card and at six-under he was tied 29th.
Lee Westwood (67) stormed to the top of the leaderboard while Rory McIlroy (72) and Thomas Bjorn (73) faltered.
After finishing his second round 65 with three straight birdies, Westwood, who can take over from McIlroy as world number two this week, picked up shots on three of his first four holes on Saturday en route to a 67 that lifted him to 15-under.
He was one ahead of first round leader, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (70) and Germany’s Marcel Siem (68) and Scot Stephen Gallacher (68).
Gangjee moves up
Despite a round of 74, Rahil Gangjee managed to move up one place to be placed tied 16th at the end of the third round of the ICTSI Philippine Open in Manila on Saturday.
Gangjee was now three-over for 54 holes as only three players were under par for the tournament, with another two on even par at a wind-swept Wack Wack Golf and Country Club’s East course.
Conditions continued to be difficult to score as the other Indians, Anirban Lahiri (73), Digvijay Singh (76) and Sujjan Singh (80) struggled.
Digvijay dropped from 25 to 36th, but Lahiri moved up from 43rd to 36 at six-over, while Sujjan, 65th overnight, was now 72nd at 14-over.
Singaporean veteran Mardan Mamat rode a hot putter to hold a slender one-shot lead over a fast-charging Filipino teenager Miguel Tabuena after the third round.
Mardan, chasing a third Asian Tour victory, holed several huge par saves en route to a battling two-under-par 70 to lead on seven-under 209.
Atwal disappoints
Arjun Atwal’s woes continued as he shot a second round 77 to slip to almost the bottom of the leaderboard in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at California.
He was now nine-over for two days at par-70 Monterey Peninsula course, the same as Daniel Chopra, who shot 77 at par-72 Pebble Beach. Both were tied 149th. Atwal had two bogeys, a double and a triple and no birdies. As sunshine gave way to a light rain Charlie Wi was still on top and Tiger Woods continued to struggle with his putting, though he was not totally out of the picture.
Woods was tied 17th at six-under after 68 at Monterey.
Wi was leading at 12-under after rounds of 61 at Monterey and 69 at Pebble Beach. He led Dustin Johnson by two. Johnson after his 9-under at Pebble Beach was even par for Spyglass.
