Yoga bears up for Randhawa

Yoga and varicose veins were the unlikely topics of conversation on the second day of the Caltex Masters in Singapore today.

India’s Jyoti Randhawa credited his yoga guru for a flawless 64 which moved him into a share of second place, while Kiwi Michael Campbell continued his comeback from an operation on his varicose veins which revealed a number of potentially life-threatening blood clots.

Local favourite Mardan Mamat was the surprise leader on nine under par after rounds of 67 and 68 at Laguna National, with Randhawa sharing second a shot behind alongside Ireland’s Damien McGrane, New Zealand’s Eddie Lee and American Greg Hanrahan.

Campbell was four off the pace after a second round 70, one ahead of Colin Montgomerie, his main rival for a place in next week’s Players Championship in Florida.

The New Zealander began the week at 52nd in the world rankings and needs a good finish to try to move inside the top 50 to book his place at Sawgrass – a goal shared by Montgomerie, who is currently 51st.

But Campbell’s main aim is simply to get back to playing regularly after the operation on his varicose veins three months ago.

“Whenever I flew on long haul flights my left leg was aching a lot,” explained Campbell, who played with just 13 clubs on Thursday after one of the clubheads came off in his hands on the practice range.

“I went to see a specialist and he told me I had to have them taken out. When he took them out he found three clots, which could have been devastating. It wasn’t a deep vein but a superficial one, but they could eventually go to the deep veins and go to the lungs or the brain and you’re gone.

“The specialist said it wasn’t serious but it could have been pretty devastating in the future, even [resulting in] death. It put my whole life into perspective very quickly.

“I need to wear some compression stockings now whenever I fly. It’s not a sexy thing but it’s what I have to do. Mike Weir (US Masters champion) has got the same problem and it’s very common for athletes who fly a lot.”

Randhawa was among 57 players who finished their first round this morning following Thursday’s thunderstorms, and a talking to from his yoga guru then paid dividends in round two.

“My yoga guru, Sukhdev Singh, is here and he told me what was needed,” Randhawa explained.

“He told me to play freely, to free my mind and be aware of what I was doing. Just play freely, get aggressive, there was nothing to lose.

“That helped me and I started playing well. He’s been working with me for the last two-and-a-half years but this is only the second time he’s come out and travelled with me.

“He also works on the physical side and helped me recover when I broke my collarbone in 2002 in a motorbike accident.”

Montgomerie carded a second round 69 to lie five off the pace and declared himself satisfied with his position.

“I’ve made just one bogey this week, and I shouldn’t have made that one, so everything’s fine,” the former European number one said.

“It’s hard work, you’ve got to keep away from the water the first two days and we’re five behind, but that’s okay, we can win from here.”

Twelve players will have to complete their second rounds on Saturday morning due to the knock-on effect of Thursday’s delay.