After two days of endless frustration with his putter, Vijay Kumar finally had a dream day and virtually sealed the fate of the Rs one million Hero Honda Open West in his favour en route a new course record seven-under 64 at the par-71 Poona Club Golf Course, on Friday.
The Lucknow golfer, once the uncrowned king of Indian golf, broke the existing course record of six-under 65, and was at 12-under 201 after three rounds. That gave him a solid cushion of six strokes over second placed Ashok Kumar, while defending champion Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia was tied third along with first and second day's leaders Jaiveer Virk and Yusuf Ali at five-under 208.
Digvijay Singh and Feroz Ali were one stroke behind, tied for the sixth place.
Vijay, who is yet to record a victory in eight starts this season, was in imperious form. His hitting was exemplary, and his putting immaculate. In fact, he had just one putt on each of his first five holes, and 29 for the round in which he hit 17 greens in regulation.
"I was just waiting for the putts to fall. The first two days my hitting was much better than what it was today, but not a single putt dropped in. Today, once I single-putted the first five holes and made four birdies, it was easy after that," said Vijay, referring to the first three holes of the Poona Club course, considered one of the toughest starting stretches on the Hero Honda Indian Golf Tour.
Vijay started with a birdie, and missed his only green in regulation on the second hole, where he made his up and down for par. He then birdied the third, fourth and fifth, before his birdie putt on the sixth lipped out. Another birdie on the seventh saw him make the turn in five-under. On the back nine, he had several chances, but could convert only two on the 10th and the 14th.
Ashok moved into second place with a three-under 68 round. The Delhi youngster, playing excellent golf for the past couple of months in which he won the Servo Masters and finished runner-up in Noida Open and TATA Open, made five birdies and two bogies in his round of 68.
"I am definitely going to attack tomorrow. With Vijay ahead by six strokes, my only chance is if I shoot something like a 65 and he fumbles," said Ashok, who drove the ninth and tenth greens both severe dogleg par-4s, with his three-wood and had a hat-trick of birdies from the ninth onwards.
Ajay Gupta, tied for the second place overnight at five-under, went out of contention with successive double bogies on the fifth and sixth holes. He finally finished with a three-over 74 and fell to tied-eighth place at two-under 211. Rahul Ganapathy, fourth at four-under in the morning, also bowed out after double bogeys on the third and seventh holes. A 73 with a finishing hole eagle saw him tied eighth at 211 along with Ajay and Uttam Singh Mundy.
SCORES (after 54 holes): 201 _ Vijay Kumar (69,68,64); 207 _ Ashok Kumar (72,67,68); 208 _ SSP Chowrasia (71,69,68), Jaiveer Virk (66,74,68), Yusuf Ali (67,67,74); 210 _ Digvijay Singh (71,68,71), Feroz Ali (70,69,71); 211 _ Uttam Singh Mundy (73,68,70), Rahul Ganapathy (71,67,73), Ajay Gupta (70,67,74); 212 _ Arjun Singh (71,72,69), Rafiq Ali (70,71,71); 213 _ Jumman (75,69,69), Ranjit Singh (74,67,72).