Son of the famous Indian athlete Milkha Singh, who missed a medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics by a whisker, Jeev Milkha Singh chose to play golf instead. After some indifferent showings in certain stages of his career, Jeev improved tremendously in the last couple of years. He broke into the top 100 in 2006 and is now the top ranked Indian golfer in the world.
Jeev went to Abilene Christian University in the US and won the NCAA Division II individual golf championship in 1993. After turning pro the same year, his first success came at the 1993 Southern Oklahoma State Open, a minor event. But he concentrated on playing in Asia, where won regularly during the mid-1990s. After finishing 7th at the European Tour qualifying school in 1997, he joined the tour in 1998. The following year, Jeev finished 50th on the Order of Merit in Europe.
After his triumph in the Lexus International in Thailand in 1999, a lean period followed as he struggled with injury at the beginning of the new millennium. Things, however, changed dramatically for him in 2006. He won four times across the world, bagged his first ever Asian Tour's UBS Order of Merit crown and soared to 37th place on the official world ranking. Jeev began by winning the Volvo China Open in April, and then followed this long-awaited success with victories in the Volvo Masters, the European Tour's season-ending event, in Spain in October and then two successive triumphs in Japan at the Casio World Open, and the Golf Nippon Series JT Cup. He finished in the top 10 in 15 other tournaments all across the world and played in all four rounds at the US Open in Winged Foot. In 2007 Jeev had the distinction of becoming the first Indian golfer to take part in the Masters Tournament. As recognition of his achievements, he was awarded the Padma Sri, India’s fourth highest civil honor in 2007.
Jeev attributes his spectacular comeback from injury to yoga and reading self-improvement books. He was earlier trained by Sam Frost but decided to go it alone in 2004. He, however, occasionally sought advice from Amritinder Singh, another top golfer from Chandigarh, and analyzed his own game through video tapes. When not playing golf, Jeev likes to watch movies.
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