Shenzhen (China): Asia put up a spectacular display of golf on the second day of the inaugural Phoenix Dynasty Cup to open up a four-point lead going into the final day's singles matches at the World Cup course of the Mission Hill Golf Club on Saturday.

Except for the opening Asian pair of Thammanoon Srirot and Thaworn Wiratchant, who lost 3 and 2 to veterans Tommy Nakajima and Hajime Meshiai, each of the remaining five Asian pairs won their four ball matches.

That gave Asia eight points to Japan's four after two days. India's Jyoti Randhawa played a stunningly aggressive golf as he and teammate Charlie Wi of Korea emerged the biggest winners of the day, beating the hapless pair of Taichi Teshima and Katsunori Kuwabara by five holes with four to play.

Randhawa was eight-under for the 14 holes when Asia wrapped up the match. The all- India pairing of Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal looked like finishing up their match against Hiroki Fujita and Keiichiro Fukabori in a hurry when they went four-up after just six holes.

However, one bad hole for the Indians, the par-4 10th, and two subsequent good holes for the Japanese, made it much closer before Jeev produced a peach of a second shot on the par-4 17th hole (a sand wedge no less than a feet) to close the match 2 and 1 in Asia's favour.

In other matches, the much-loved local pair of Zhang Lian-wei and Liang Wen-chong gave their supporters a lot to cheer by shutting out Kiyoshi Murota and Tomohiro Kondo 2&1; all-Thai pair of Thongchai Jaidee and Prayad Marksaeng beat Toru Suzuki and Katsumasa Miyamoto 2&1, while the veteran Asian pair of Lin Keng-chi and Kang Wook-soon gave a lesson to Yasuharu Imano and Nobuhito Sato beating them 4&3.

Randhawa was in awesome form as he birdied the first, second, third, fifth and sixth holes to take Asia 3-up at one stage. He then birdied the 11th, 13th and 14th to knock the winds out of his opponents.

On the fifth hole, after giving a 'gimme putt' to the Japanese, the Delhi-based golfer drained a 20-footer to even the hole. "I think it helped to have someone like Charlie playing with me. We decided that I would hit my tee shots first.

Knowing that Charlie was always there to cover up for me, I just played aggressive golf throughout," said the 30-year-old who gave a taste of things to come for the Japanese players as he is heading to Japan to play their tour.

Jeev was in excellent form and won the first hole for his team with a par, the third with a birdie, the fifth with a birdie and the sixth with another birdie.

In fact, the Chandigarh golfer narrowly missed a hole-in-one on the fifth hole when his ball hit the flag and rolled to less than a feet from the hole. When Jeev faltered on the second hole by sending his drive into the rough, Atwal stepped in to level the hole with a birdie against Fujita's birdie. The Indian pair was on song and made the turn four-up.

Things went wrong on the 10th and both made bogies to hand over the hole to Japanese. Fukabori then produced a stunning shot on the 11th and they made another birdie on the 12th to reduce the gap to 1-up in Asia's favour.

The Asian team then levelled the next four holes, before Jeev's gem finished the business. "Personally, I think I played very solid golf to day. We should have won a lot more easier but for just one bad hole. I think the 10th hole also boosted the confidence of the Japanese and they won the next two holes playing good golf," said Jeev, who will have the ominous task of handling Japanese match play expert Katsumasa Miyamoto in the penultimate singles match on the final day.

"I am glad we won as we needed to get back after Friday's performance. We were expected to win and we did not. So, both Jeev and me were hungry for a victory.

"Jeev played very well, while I struggled with my putter for the second consecutive day. I hit the ball very solid though," said Atwal who will face Japanese veteran Tommy Nakajima.

A very pleased Asian captain Hsieh Min-nan issued a word of caution for the players. "I think it is great that we are up by four points. But with 12 points at stake in the singles, and the Japanese getting used to the course, I think we should not become complacent," he said.

PTI