Jeev Milkha Singh fired his third straight under-par round to climb one notch higher on the leader-board even as fellow-Indian Jyoti Randhawa slid into oblivion after the penultimate round of the 120 million Yen ABC Championship 2004, being played at the par- 72, ABC Course Club at Hyohgo.
Jeev, who shot a one-under 71 was tied-16th at five-under 211.
Randhawa, after a dismal round of 76, slid to tied-46 position.
The tournament threw up a third leader in as many days with M Inoue returning a well compiled 66 to nudge two strokes ahead of the field at 14-under 202.
Jeev had anything but a happy initial few holes. The 32-year old dropped shots on the third and fifth to go two over early on. He however made up in style with a hat-trick of birdies on the seventh, eighth and ninth. His back nine was steamrolled by a series of pars before a dropped shot on the 17th put an unwanted halt to that.
Jeev, however, regained lost ground with a birdie on his closing hole. Jeev's round would have been far better but for his wayward driver. He was however saved by what some accurate and effective golf on and around the green.
Randhawa, who till yesterday, was matching his Indian counterpart stroke for stroke, witnessed a sudden and total loss of form today. The 32-year old, who holds the distinction of being the first and only Indian to win an event on the Japanese PGA Tour (Suntory Open 2003), double bogeyed the fourth and the 15th with a bogey on the 11th further adding to his miseries.
The only silver lining in his round was a birdie finish on the 18th.
Tournament leader Inoue, who had rounds of 69 and 67 leading up to today, erred just once when he dropped a shot on the third. Otherwise, he was in top gear with birdies on the fourth, eighth, ninth 13th and 17th and an eagle finish to his round on the 18th handing him a card of 66.
Scores (after 54 holes): 202 M Inoue(69,67,66); 204 T Kamiyama(68,66,70), T Suziki(71,65,68), R Kawagishi(71,69,64); 208 T Taniguchi(68,69,71), H Fujita(69,70,69, H Kase(72,68,68), D Chand(72,70,68), H Sasaki(66,69,73), D Maruyama(71,69,68), S Hirota(69,74,65).
