By V. Krishnaswamy,IANS,
Dubai, Nov 20 (IANS) Indian golfer Jeev Milkha Singh endured a frustrating day on the greens but managed to hang in there with a par-72 to be two-under 142 for two days at the Dubai World Championship here Friday.
Jeev, who began the day in shared 14th place, slid to tied 24th even as the tussle at the top of the leaderboard became very dramatic.
Two-time British Open champion Padraig Harrington at nine-under on the 18th tee, looked all set to take the spotlight away from Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy. But a double bogey saw him seven-under, but with two more days to go, he could have time to make up.
Minutes later, Westwood playing two groups behind birdied the 18th to move to nine-under for a two-shot lead over the group of six – McIlroy (69), Harrington (69), Ross McGowan (66), Louis Oosthuizen (66), Camilo Villegas (71) and Robert Allenby (72) – who shared the second place.
Jeev, who started the day at two-under, looked set to make a big move up and he birdied the second and third to get to four-under. A bogey on the fourth seemed a blip, but a birdie on seventh brought him back as he turned in two-under. A bogey on 10th and then a double on 16th, where he went into the water was followed by a chip-in birdie on the tough 17th.
On the 18th, Jeev seemed to have rolled his 20-footer for birdie really well, but it stopped right at the lip.
“That was something like the story of the day. I hit the ball as well as I have this whole year, but the putts did not fall. I missed at least four putts inside six feet and yesterday I think I had three horse-shoe putts (the ball rolling around the lip and coming out). But I am not going to lose it. When the putts drop, the scores will do so, too,” said a smiling Jeev.