Digvijay Singh set the Classic Golf resort on fire with a card of 6-under 66 to open up a four-stroke lead atop the leaderboard after the penultimate day of the Rs 25 lakh Airtel Masters Golf tournament in Gurgaon on Thursday.
The fine performance took Digvijay's three-day tally to 13-under 203 in this second biggest prize-money event, which forms the 19th leg of the Amby Valley PGAI Tour 2004-05.
Talented rookie Shiv Kapur returned a score identical to Digvijay's to leap into tied-second position with Jaipur's Vishal Singh at nine-under 207.
Sanjay Kumar and Vijay Singh were placed fourth at 209 and 210.
Jeev Milkha Singh made a return to form with a five-under 67 to climb to tied-14th place.
Ashok Kumar, second on the Amby Valley PGAI Tour Order of Merit 2004-05, had to be content with a tied 24th position at one-under 215.
Current money leader on the Tour, Mukesh Kumar, fired a round of 71 to slip to a tied-28th position at level par 216.
Digvijay Singh, walked into the Classic Golf Resort on Thursday groggy and tired, the reason being the golfer's 70-km drive after the second round to witness his sister Tina's movie premier. To top it all, the golfer and Vikrant Chopra, who accompanied him on the trip, were confronted with a flat tyre on the way back.
After only four hours of sleep Digvijay teed it up for the third round of the Airtel Masters.
Digvijay started off with a par but birdied the very next hole. On the third he hit a driver-two iron and holed the 15 feet eagle putt.
On the fifth an accurate eight iron saw him putt for birdie and the following hole saw him make another eight footer for his third birdie of the day, his score five under for the day after six holes. A birdie on the ninth saw him make the turn at six-under.
On his back nine he dropped a shot on the 11th for the third day in succession. The 33-year-old, however, made up for this error with a birdie on the 14th. Another dropped shot on the 17th was followed by a birdie finish to the round.
Jaipur's Vishal Singh continued to ride the gravy train with a round of three-under 69. The golfer started with a birdie and had another one on the fourth to make the turn at two-under. On his back nine Vishal birdied the 12th, 15th and 18th but bogeys on two par threes - 11th and 17th - prevented him from occupying the sole second spot.
Shiv Kapur is fast becoming some kind of a comeback kid on the Amby Valley PGAI Tour. A fortnight ago the 22-year-old fired a round of 10-over at the PSPB OPEN but recovered to finish tied-14th.
This week Shiv had a poor outward journey on the opening day where he made the turn at four over but finished with a round of one-under.
From that position the Asian games Gold medalist has leapt to just three strokes behind the leader.
Scores (after 54 holes): 203 Digvijay Singh (68,69,66); 207 Shiv Kapur (71,70,66), Vishal Singh (71,67,69); 209 Sanjay Kumar (73,69,67); 210 Vijay Kumar (70,72,68); 211 Sandeep Syal (71,71,69), Rahul Ganapathy (70,70,71), Gaurav Ghei (66,72,73); 212 C Muniyappa (77,67,68), Vikrant Chopra (a) (72,70,70), Ajeetesh Sandhu (a) (73, 68, 71), S Madaiah (72,69,71), Harinder Gupta (70,70,72).
