James Barry ‘Jbe’ Kruger found himself a stroke ahead of the field after overnight leader Peter Whitefield slipped to the joint second spot following a double-bogey on the 17th hole on what turned out to be a poor third round for the Indians in the euro 1.8-million Avantha Masters golf championship here on Saturday.
Getting better with each round, Kruger fired a six-under 66 to snatch the lead at 11-under 205 at the DLF Golf and Country Club here.
Marcel Siem, who double-bogeyed the first two holes, recovered brilliantly to fire eight birdies and finished the round with an ‘eagle’ to be in the second spot. He was later joined by Whiteford and Frenchman Jean- Baptiste Gonnet.
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Equally sensational was joint-fourth Jose Manuel Lara play. The Spaniard started the day sharing the 43 spot but managed to catch up with Whiteford in the lead at 9-under by shooting the day’s best 64, inclusive of eight birdies after dropping a shot on the third hole.
On a day that produced 18 ‘eagles’ including two each by four players, Indians had a truly forgettable round. Out of the 12 home challengers left in the fray, Shiv Kapur and Vijay Kumar shot an identical 71 while the rest returned their worst card in three days.
Whitefield, leader after 16 holes at 12-under, had reasons to be frustrated. “I am raging. I’ve let everyone back in it. If I’d managed a three or four under, I would have had a good lead, and I gave myself enough chances to shoot a lower score. It was disappointing on the 17th because my tee-shot landed in a divot and I came up short with a 9-iron. I had enough birdies to keep positive, but overall it’s disappointing,” said the Scot who led on the first two days.
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Kruger, 25, is a regular at the Sunshine Tour at home in South Africa. A professional since 2007, Kruger will be looking for his breakthrough win on Sunday.
“I’m going to try to play like how I played today. If it’s meant to be my week, it’ll be mine, so I don’t want to think too far yet,” said Kruger after firing two ‘eagles’ – on the sixth and 15th holes – and two birdies in his flawless round.
Siem was proud of his effort after being four-over before the third hole. “It was pretty cool today. I showed a lot of heart to come back from a start like that and keep going. And it’s great to finish birdie-eagle in any round,” said the German.
The scores:
Jbe Kruger (RSA) (70, 69, 66) 205; Marcel Siel (Ger) (69, 69, 68),
Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) (68, 69, 69), Peter Whiteford (Sco) (66,
68, 72) 206; Jose Manuel Lara (Esp) (69, 71, 67), Andrea Pavan (Ita)
(69, 71, 67), Paul McGinley (Irl) (70, 69, 68), Marc Warren (Sco) (72,
67, 68), Marcus Fraser (Aus) (69, 69, 69) and Prom Meesawat (Tha) (72,
64, 71) 207.
Indians: Anirban Lahiri (69, 69, 72) 210; Shiv Kapur (71, 70, 71) 212;
Vijay Kumar (72, 69, 71), Shamim Khan (70, 68, 74) 212; Vivek Bhandari
(69, 72, 75), Jeev Milkha Singh (69, 72, 75) 216; Gaurav Pratap Singh
(72, 72, 74), Manav Jaini (73, 70, 75), Mukesh Kumar (71, 72, 75), S.
S. P. Chowrasia (71, 72, 75) 218, Himmat Rai (68, 72, 76) 219 and
Sanjay Kumar (73, 70, 78) 221.