Crans Montana (Switzerland): Indian trio of Jeev Milkha Singh, Shiv Kapur and Gaganjeet Bhullar dropped down the leaderboard after the third round of the Omega European Masters on Saturday.
Chandigarh golfer Jeev, who was tied 25th after two rounds, dropped to tied 42nd after carding an even par 71 on a day when scoring seemed to be good for the field.
Kapur also slipped from inside top-20 to 61st spot, while Bhullar dropped 16 places to 68th.
"I started off really well. I hit a few bad drives and lost confidence on the back nine. It was a windy and tough day. I tried to hang in there and shot even-par," Jeev said.
"I felt that I had a good chance to shoot five or six-under and I had such a great start but I let it go. Tomorrow is another day and I`ll go out, try my best and see what happens. My driver let me down. I didn`t hit my drives very well which was disappointing," he added.
Earlier, SSP Chowrasia, Anirban Lahiri and Jyoti Randhawa missed the cut.
Jeev had a birdie-birdie start but three bogeys and another birdie saw him end round three at 71, which kept him at four-under through three rounds.
Things were tough for Kapur, who after starting with a birdie on first, had three bogeys in a row from seventh to ninth and then had more grief on 12th, 13th and 17th. He dropped to even par for three rounds and was tied 61st.
Bhullar, who had two birdies and three bogeys on front nine and three bogeys in last three holes, finished with a 75 that saw him at two-over for 54 holes and one of the only three players who have a over-par score for three rounds.
Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood were both at 13-under with the latter still needing to play three more holes and former four.
Jamie Donaldson was lying third at 12-under, Soren Hansen was at 11-under and he was six-under through 16 holes in third round. Also at 11-under were Thomas Bjorn and Gary Boyd, who also had yet to complete their rounds.
McIlroy jumped into a two stroke lead with a 30 foot eagle putt from the fringe of the seventh green. But Westwood birdied two par-fives, 14th and 15th, to go to 13-under, where McIlroy joined him with a birdie on 14th.
Things were so congested that 16 of the field were separated by only one stroke at one point and an even more amazing 13 different players had grabbed at least a share of top spot on the day.
England`s Nick Dougherty, who after starting with a pace-setting 63 had made his first halfway cut in 22 events going back to last November, resumed one behind and birdied the long first, but by following it with five pars in a row slipped to joint 12th.
Westwood had four birdies from sixth to ninth on front nine for a 31.
Donaldson joined Westwood on 11 under, but then three-putted the ninth for a bogey six and slipped back alongside last week`s winner Thomas Bjorn, Boyd, Danny Willett and World Number Five Martin Kaymer.
Westwood became joint-leader again with a two-putt birdie at the long 14th and McIlroy did well to stay alongside him, getting up and down from a bunker on the 13th.
They were a shot in front of Dane Soren Hansen, who came into picture with an 18 foot eagle at the 15th.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, September 03, 2011, 20:01