Chennai, Sept 05: Defending champion, Mukesh Kumar of Mhow, hogged the limelight with a superb bogey-free round of five under 65 to be the sole leader with a seven-stroke lead at the end of the penultimate round of the four round Hyundai Open here today. Kumar, the four time champion golfer of the year, had a three round tally of 10 under par 200.

Delhi's Ajay Gupta and Kolkata's Rafiq Ali were in the second and third spot respectively with identical score of 207 while overnight joint leader Ashok Kumar, the 'rookie of the year', from New Delhi failed to capitalise with a disastrous round of six over 76 to be in the 10th spot. Yusuf Ali (Kolkata) was in fourth place (209) followed by Bangalore's R Murthy, S S P Chowrasia (Del), Pappan (Del), Feroz Ali (Kol), US Mundy (Kol) in fifth position with identical scores of 210.

Amongst the amateurs, L Selvaraj of ONGC with 214 and D Nagaraj (234) were in the top positions. Mukesh Kumar made a steady beginning and achieved his first birdie on the 5th hole and then in the 8th hole where he sunk a 20-footer putt. He was in superb form and never looked back before ending the day creditably with a 5 under par 65. Bureau Report