Lahiri's magical birdies...

ANIRBAN Lahiri did an Indian Rope Trick when he fired an amazing 10 birdies in a bogey free round for a super 62 to fly from his overnight joint-21st to lie alone on fifth in the Maybank Malaysian Open yesterday.
   Unnoticed after an opening round of 70 followed by a 72 and barely making the weekend cut, the Indian's heroics has placed him in contention for a top-five finish in the US$3million tournament at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.
   His 12-under 204 was a result of super confidence, as the last two days he made 11 birdies but dropped nine shots.
    "This (birdy binge) changes the situation in terms of where I stand leding into the final round, but in terms of what I need to do, it’ll be the same thing in the final.
   "I’ve been hitting a lot of fairways which is what you need on this course. I think the hall mark today (yesterday) was that I stayed bogey free because the first two days, I made 11 birdies and dropped nine shots so I went back yesterday (Friday) thinking that I’m just making too many mistakes, probably because I’m trying too hard and I just came out here and just relaxed a little bit and I just enjoyed it."
    And did he think that he would be in this position at the start of the morning?
   "I absolutely did. I knew I was playing well. I knew I had the opportunity to make a move. Start of the day, I would have backed myself to get close to 10-under, not quite so close or past it rather, so I’m quite happy.
    "Last couple of days, I was trying too hard to make birdies, trying to make a move. Like I said, I just let go today (yesterday). When I saw a line, I just hit it on the line and took it on merit whether it went in or missed. I was really relaxed on the course, and didn’t really care much on what was happening on the leaderboard. It was nice to go out there to play with freedom and that’s what I’ll try to do tomorrow (final round).