Greater Noida, Aug 31 (PTI) Tournament host Jeev Milkha Singh inched closer to a maiden Legends Tour victory after carding a second successive 4-under 68 and reduce the gap to leader Sweden’s Joakim Haeggman to one stroke, at the India Legends Championship here on Saturday.
The 52-year-old, who has an aggregate of 8-under 136 after two rounds, sits in the second place.
Haeggman, who added a card of 70 to his first round of 65, is at 9 under at the USD 500,000 tournament being played at the Jaypee Greens Gold Course.
Jeev thus has an opportunity to score a first-ever international win at home, a feat that has eluded his otherwise illustrious career.
Jeev, who has won on three different international tours, equalled the day’s best card on Saturday despite admitting to feeling ‘out of fuel’ towards the end.
Making it exciting for home fans was Jyoti Randhawa, (68-72) whose mixed bag on the day included six birdies and as many pars and bogeys.
The winner of the Legend Tour’s Q School in Turkey earlier in the year, Randhawa was 4-under for 36 holes and third on the leaderboard.
“It was an up and down round. I think I just wanted to play good today. I put myself under pressure, you could say. You’re trying to score a good round,” Randhawa said.
The conditions were hot and challenging and only eight players went under par in the second round, four of whom were at 1-under after two days.
Other Indians in fray, Amandeep Johl (73-73) and Mukesh Kumar (74-72) did well to be in top-20 as they were tied-18th at 2-over for two rounds.
Brazil’s Adilson da Silva (68-73), who has played in India on multiple occasions, was sole fourth at 3-under 141.
Clark Dennis, second after the opening round, slipped to fifth after a 75 on Saturday.
Though Haeggman stayed in the lead, Jeev was breathing down his neck having cut the gap between him and the Swede from three strokes to one.
Other than a blip on his ninth hole of the day (the 18th), when he found the water, Jeev had a satisfying day with a second 68. “I got greedy,” he said later of the dropped shot, though he did pull off two long putts in the course of his round on the day.
“I think the last hole par (on the ninth) was special because I hit a bad bunker shot and I holed a good 20-foot putt. Especially on the second nine, I felt like my body wasn’t keeping up with me.
“Maybe I needed more energy. So the last three holes were really difficult for me because what I wanted to do, I wasn’t able to do. But I got away with it,” he added.
Haeggman, a three-time winner on the European Tour before joining the Legends Tour in 2022 where he took the 2022 MCB Tour Championship – Seychelles that year, said patience was the name of the game.
“Jeev’s going to be right in there and it couldn’t be better for the tournament, but obviously I hope that I can stay on top and beat him tomorrow, but again it’s great for the tournament that we have two Indians playing well.” PTI APA DDV
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