Mukesh upstages Vijay
to snatch lead

Vijay Kumar fell victim to the guiles of the testing third hole at the Forest Hill Golf Resort, thereby relinquishing his overnight lead to Mukesh Kumar at the mid-way stage of the Rs One million WWICS Forest Hill Golf Open, being played at the Forest Hill Golf & Country Club, Chandigarh, on Thursday.

Mukesh, current Money List leader on the Hero Honda Indian Golf Tour, shot a two-under 70 and now leads the field with a 36-hole tally of six-under 138.

Vijay, winner of Hero Honda South and TNGF Open this season, is one stroke behind at five-under 139. Another two-time winner on the Tour, Digvijay Singh, is placed third at one-under 143, while local boy Amritinder Singh is fourth at level-par 144. Another local hero, Harmeet Kahlon, atoned for his opening round score of 81 with a well-compiled four-under 68 today. That placed the 31-year old at five-over 149.

The mid-way cut was applied at 17-over 161, the highest this season on the Hero Honda Indian Golf Tour and ample testimony to the toughness of the Forest Hill Golf & Country Club course.

Mukesh Kumar's round can be described as perfect under the prevailing circumstances. The Mhow golfer proved how percentage golf can help in times when confronted with an extremely challenging golf course. Playing safe on the initial three holes for pars, Mukesh attacked the fourth green to make a birdie. A bogey on the seventh, where he failed to find the fairway with his tee shot, was the only error in a steady round of two-under 70. Birdies on the eighth and 11th, the former resulting from a ten-feet putt and the latter from an eight-feet putting effort, were the other highlights of his day's play.

"The course was playing tough today and it was a real challenge. Vijay was struggling on a few holes and I knew all I had to do was to keep the ball in play and try for par on every hole. That worked," said the smiling golfer who was however quite disappointed with his putting. "I returned 28 putts today compared to 26 yesterday. I need to work on improving this," he added.

Vijay Kumar was done in by the tough par-four third hole today. The fairway doglegs from right to left with daunting crevices dotting the landscape either side of the fairway. It is these crevices that consumed Vijay's ball and resulted in his returning a double-bogey the first time round and a one-stroke worse when the hole was replayed as the 12th.

"The third hole had me completely humbled today but I will get my own back tomorrow," said Vijay, who has already devised a strategy to counter the challenge offered by the hole.

"I plan to use my driver to get over the crevice ahead of the tee, straight onto the fourth fairway and get on to the green from there," said a confident Vijay, whose card also contained bogeys on the second and seventh, an eagle on the 14th and birdies on the eight (a 25 feet effort), ninth, tenth and 18th.

"I have found a worthy opponent in the Forest Hill Golf Resort. Beating the course and winning this tournament will be one of the highlights of my career if I manage it this week," said the Lucknow-based pro.

Scores (after 36 holes): 138 _ Mukesh Kumar (68,70); 139 _ Vijay Kumar (66,73); 143 _ Digvijay Singh (71,72); 144 _ Amritinder Singh (72,72); 145 _ Shamim Khan (73,72); 146 _ Pappan (76,70); 148 _ Ashok Kumar (72,76); 149 _ Harmeet Kahlon (81,68), Zai Kipgen (76,73), Steve Kent (75,74), Monish Bindra (74,75), C Muniyappa (73,76), Shiv Prakash (74,75); 150 _ Asgar Ali (73,77), Ali Sher (73,77), Rahil Gangjee (71,79)