Despite being docked two strokes for a ruling that went against him yesterday, Jyoti was confidence personified. But for those two penalty strokes he may have begun this morning of the US $200,000 Hero Honda Masters in joint lead with Jeev Milkha Singh. It came a week after losing to Uttam Singh Mundy in a heart-breaking play-off which went on for five holes last Sunday in the Honda-Siel PGAI event.

For the 27-year-old Randhawa, who turned pro in 1994, it was his maiden win on the Omega Tour, making him only the third Indian after Jeev (who has three titles) and Gaurav Ghei, who won here in Delhi in 1995, todo so.

In the morning, Randhawa birdied the first hole to catch up with Mike Cunning and Gerry Norquist, both at eight under, and when he drained the eight-foot birdie on the fifth he was level with leader Jeev Milkha Singh. In the lead group, Jeev started off with a great putt to save par on the first, but when he dropped a stroke on the par-three fifth minutes after Jyoti had birdied it, the tournament had a new leader. Jyoti was nine under and Jeev eight under.

The gallery, which swelled to almost 7,000 to 8,000 and got its money's worth, watching Jyoti draining birdies on the greens and waiting for Jeev to come along the fairway with the last group.

Slowly but steadily Jyoti began pulling away. Playing flawless game, he added another birdie on the eighth, his third on the front nine. Meanwhile, Jeev dropped another shot on the seventh but made up on the eighth with a birdie after reaching the green in two with a driver and 3 wood. So it was three under for the first nine for Jyoti and par forCunning, two over for Jeev and three over for Norquist. Jyoti was leading with Cunning second and Jeev third.

For the remainder of the nine holes, it seemed that the lead group was trying to play with Jyoti. On the return journey, it was Cunning's turn to wither away, as Norquist and Jeev played two under. But Jyoti birdied four times. Following up on his great 20-foot putt to save par on the ninth, he had two more 20-footers on the 10th and he closed the title in style with yet another on the 18th.

Leading scores: 275: Jyoti Randhawa (69, 67, 73, 66); 279: Jeev Milkha Singh (67, 71, 69, 72); 281: Gerry Norquist (US) (65, 73, 70, 73); 282: Rob Huxtable (US) (72, 72, 73, 65), Arjun Atwal (71, 69, 71, 71), Mike Cunning (US) (68, 68, 72, 74); 283: Jim Rutledge (US) 73, 72, 71, 67), Craign Kamps (RSA) (70, 73, 72, 68), Rafael Ponce (Ecu) (71, 71, 69, 72), Carlos Espinosa (Mex) (70, 72, 68, 73), Scott Taylor (US) (69, 71, 70, 73); 284: Wayne Bradely (RSA) (73, 71, 71, 69), Daniel Chopra (Swe) 71, 69,72, 72).