Mike Cunning Snatches The Lead

The wind blew across the Classic Golf Resort today. An evening out of the situation as they had been predicting at the Wills Indian Open finally came into play today. Or did it ?

Overnight leader Felix Casas had the cuffs of his trousers flapping like flags in the breeze as he went through nerve-wracking putts late on the back nine.

Yusuf Ali, dismissive and disdainful in turns, maintained that the lack of any wind helped his game no end.

Casas, Yusuf and Mike Cunning will form the leader group for the final day of this premier tournament which promises to be a cracker.

 

In a long, long time perhaps, going into the last round, the leader group will comprise a threesome which wouldn't boast of a single win between them - either on the Asian tour or the Indian. Some wind then does seem blowing across the CGR.

The 41-year-old Cunning stole the lead with his typical straight-hitting and speed game to turn in a card of six-under 66 for a three-round tally of under-15 par 201.

Just behind in the day's leader group, Casas allowed it to happen, what with a double bogey on par-four 10th and rounding off a seemingly difficult day with another dropped stoke on the par-three 17th and a difficult par on the last.

Mike Cunning. It all seems coming full circle for him, finally. But how many times before has this been said for the American from Arizona? The 1997 Order of Merit winner on the Asian Tour, Cunning may have seen it all but no win to write home about. In Hemmingway-esque fashion, maybe tomorrow he brings in the big fish. Finally?

It even appeared so routine that the end of the third round evoked similar rave reviews before an all-too familiar fade-out on the last day. But today, Cunning displayed a verve that seemed to belie his 41-years in age and two decades on the course as a pro. It was the freshness in his approach that brought about the feeling that it was not necessarily a new putter but a while new system that bodes well. "That was the past. This is 2000. I'm looking to the future" was what he had to say today.

He began with a bogey on the first, but quickly put that behind him, with a flurry of birdies on the third, seventh, eighth, 10th, 14th, 15th and 18th.

A spectacular 25-foot uphill putt on the par-four 15 today and just two bogies over three days and 54 holes goes to show that Cunning seems rather comfortably placed with his putting. And add to the fact that he hasn't three-putted all through the tournament.

It's been three eagles in as many days for the 33-year-old Casas who shot a level par today. If the first came of the par-four fourth, the next on the par-three third, today it came on the par-five 14th where he chipped in from 25 yards.

Disaster struck on the 10th. He met the fairway bunker, and then the greenside bunker from where he could not recover. He missed the up and down for two strokes lost. Then came another dropped stroke on the 17th, while Cunning scored a birdie on the final hole. Casas had had an bogey on the par-four fourth earlier in the day.

What of Yusuf Ali? The Calcuttan pro never won a tournament, never before made the Indian Open cut and shot a five-under 67 today to be able to rub shoulders with the likes of Cunning and Casas tomorrow.

Yusuf had birdies on the fourth, ninth, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 18th and dropped strokes on the eighth and 13th. The par-five ninth saw him sink a 30-footer for birdie. Yusuf attributes his sudden upsurge to a change in clubs -- he now uses the Ping Zing. It was imediately after this change-over that he finished sixth in the Padampat Singhania Open in Noida last month.

While 30-year-old former soldier from the Thai army, Thongchai Jaidee had the day's best card with a seven-under par 65, the Indian challenge seemed diminished. Defending champion Arjun Atwal admitted his chances were slim, with a one-over 73 today.

Randhawa despite witnessing his ball stopping woefully short inches off the hole, still stays in hunt with a two-under 70, to be three strokes adrift of the leader. Final round of the Indian Open tomorrow, and it looks like fireworks.

Leading scores (professionals): 201 - Mike Cunning (68, 67, 66); 203 - Yusuf Ali (70, 66, 67), Felix Casas (66, 65, 72); 204 - Jyoti Randhawa (66, 68, 70),Trevor Immelman (70, 67, 67); 205 - Hendrik Buhrmann (70, 66, 69), Gilberto Morales (72, 67, 66), Thongchai Jaidee (70, 70 65); 206 - Justin Hobday (69, 69, 68) Prayad Marksaeng (68, 70, 68), Andre Cruse (69, 69, 68). 207 - Arjun Atwal (68, 66, 73), Vivek Bhandari (70, 68, 69), Jim Rutledge (68, 71, 68) Nico Van Rensburg (68, 66, 74), Yeh Wei-Tze (70, 68, 70) Robert Huxtable(67, 71, 70), Nam Young-Woo (69, 70, 69), Sammy Daniels (68, 71, 69), Gaurav Ghei (68, 71, 69), James Kingston (70, 70, 68), Ross Bain (70, 70, 68), Simon Dyson (66, 74, 68).