Indian journeyman books weekend playing with Woods

SHANGHAI - With a mixture of delight, excitement and surprise, unheralded Indian Jyoti Randhawa held onto his lead at Asia’s richest golf tournament here on Friday to earn a weekend playing golf with Tiger Woods.
Randhawa, ranked 103 in the world and still trying to establish himself on the European tour, followed his seven-under par 65 in the opening round on Thursday with a three-under 69 to maintain his spot atop the leaderboard.
Sitting below him are 10 of the world’s top 20 ranked golfers, with world number one Woods just two shots behind after shooting a course-record equalling 64 on Friday.
Two-time US Open champion Retief Goosen of South Africa is in outright second on nine under, while 2005 US Open title holder Michael Campbell of New Zealand is sitting alongside Woods at eight under.
For Randhawa, who claimed the 2002 Asian Order of Merit but has never won on the European tour, his unexpectedly lofty position on Friday is the stuff of dreams.
“I am very delighted. I didn’t think I would end up leading the golf tournament after two days, especially in a field like this,” the 34-year-old said.
Randhawa will now play the final two rounds -- and compete for a winner’s cheque of more than 800,000 dollars - with Woods and Goosen.
“It would be an honor for me just to have a round of golf with him (Woods),” Randhawa said, although he emphasized he would try to treat the situation as normally as possible.
“I’ll just try to play my own game... whether it’s Tiger Woods or somebody else, somebody is going to win this tournament and it’s going to be the best player that week.”
Nevertheless, he admitted that excitement at leading such an illustrious field may have already cost him at least two strokes, blaming his nerves for starting the day on Friday with two bogeys.

Source :Khaleej times