Raj mainains lead at amateur golf

COIMBATORE, June 28: Delhi's Raj Randhawa braved tough conditions to shoot a round of five-over 77 to maintain a solitary stroke advantage atop the leaderboard after the third day of the LG Coimbatore Amateur Golf Championship on Thursday.
Oil India's Simarjeet Singh brought in the day's best card of three-over 75 to share tied second place with Moin Malak at 227.Malak shot a 77 on Thursday.
ONGC's Vikram Rana was in fourth place at 228 after shooting a 78, while Samaresh Sardar was a further two strokes behind in fifth spot after shooting a 78.
Gagan Verma shot an 80 to occupy sixth place at 231 with K Prabagaran a further stroke behind at 232. Prabagaran shot a 77 on Thursday.
Mithun Perera carded a round of 80 to occupy the eighth place at 233, while Abhishek Jha and Jasjeet Singh were tied for ninth place with 234.
Scores after 54 holes:
226 Raj Randhawa (75 74 77)
227 Simarjeet Singh (73 79 75), Moil Malak (74 76 77),
228 Vikram Rana (78 72 78),
230 Samaresh Sardar (75 77 78),
231 Gagan Verma (72 79 80),
232 K Prabagaran (76 79 77),
233 Mithun Perera (76 77 80),
234 Abhishek Jha (76 77 81), Jasjeet Singh (79,78 77),
235 Raja BR (77 78 80),
236 Amanjyot Singh (81 76 79) H S Kang (81 75 80), Navtez Singh (80 77 79),
237 Lt Col S K Lakra (78 79 80) Arshdeep Tiwana (75 82 80). PTI NVM BN TUS 06281827 DEL Randhawa's tally now stands at 10-over 226 in the event, which forms the third leg on the LG Indian Amateur Golf Tour.
He started on a cautious note parring the opening nine holes. On the back nine however, he three-putted the 12th and 14th for bogeys interspersed with a birdie on the 13th.
He ended his round with a triple bogey on the 17th and a bogey on the 18th. On the 17th, he lost his ball while on the last he overshot the green.
Simarjeet had a birdie on the sixth but a bogey on eight saw him make the turn at level par. On the back nine, he bogeyed 10th, 12th and 14th, followed by a birdie on the 17th, where he sank a 20-footer left to right putt.
He ended his round with a bogey when he overshot the green and missed a four-footer.
Malak started badly with bogeys on his first three holes but recovered brilliantly to fire an eagle on the fifth.
On that hole, he used a driver-three wood combination to nail the ball within a foot from the pin.
Malak bogeyed the sixth and eight but birdied the ninth to make the turn at two-over. On the back nine, he started with a birdie on the 10th but double-bogeyed the 14th and bogeyed the 16th and 17th to end the day at 77.
Vikram had bogeys on the first, seventh, eighth and 17th and double bogeys on the third and fourth. However, an eagle on the ninth saw him end the day at 78.