Jyoti Randhawa

Shanghai: Jyoti Randhawa overcame a disastrous start to hang on to his one shot lead at the midway stage of $5 million HSBC Champions golf meet on Friday.

Randhawa led a sensational Indian challenge as Shiv Kapur (67) and Jeev Milkha Singh (70) also moved into the top-10 of the leaderboard.

Randhawa will now be paired with Tiger Woods, who stormed back into contention with a course record equalling eight-under 64, and second-placed Retief Goosen (67) in the third round.

Woods matched the Sheshan course record set by Swede Henrik Stenson earlier in the day and believes he could have gone even lower.

“I missed a few actually, it’s kind of scary when you shoot an eight-under par, but I did miss a few out there,” he said. “Maybe I could have gone two or three (lower), maybe.”

Stenson hit eight birdies for his 64 to share the course record but a first round 76 means he remains joint 17th on four under.

The Indian trio was the toast of a world-class field that saw Woods sizzle with seven birdies, an eagle and one bogey. That eight-under brought Woods into tied third with 2004 US Open champion Michael Campbell (70). Both are now two strokes behind Randhawa.

Goosen began with three birdies in first four holes and then closed with a triplet of birdies and moved to nine-under for 36 holes.

Shiv climbed up from overnight 18th to tied eighth at six-under, while Jeev moved from overnight tied 15th to tied 10th at five-under. Gaurav Ghei (70) was lying tied 29th.

“I’m delighted,” said Randhawa. “All said and done, I’m happy. If I’m leader at the halfway stage, you can’t ask for more than that.”

On being paired with Woods for the next round, he said: “For me just to have a round of golf with him is great, but I will just try and play my own game.”

Randhawa, who has won on his last two starts — one on Asian Tour and one on the Indian Tour — opened with bogeys on his first two holes on the 10th and 11th.

But the former Asian No. 1 fought back resolutely with birdies on next two holes to get back to even for the day. Another birdie on the 16th saw him turn in one-under.

Randhawa added birdies on the third, fifth and seventh which brought him to four-under and 11-under for two days. A late bogey on eighth saw him finish at 69 and 10-under for the 36 holes.

India’s other star of the day was Shiv. The 24-year-old had a stunning start with four birdies in row. He had one more birdie on the 13th, and completed the day bogey-free.

Jeev gave playing partner Woods something to mull over as he began with three birdies in first four holes as Woods managed only pars on the first three holes.

But then Woods went on a birdie spree with four in a row from fourth to seventh for a front nine of 32. The pair put on a fascinating display as Jeev added a fourth birdie on the eighth and they both completed the front-nine with flawless four-under 36s.

Then Jeev faltered with bogeys on 11th and 13th, but Woods continued his strong display. The world No. 1 came up with a brilliant eagle on 14th and a birdie on 18th to finish the day. (AGENCIES)