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Spotlight on Jeev Milkha Singh

Headlining the nominees for the Asian Tour’s inaugural UBS Special Achievement Award, Jeev Milkha Singh is a favourite to continue his dominance of Asian golf this season. The winner of this award will be known at the Asian Tour's UBS Awards Gala in Bangkok on December 17.

In reviewing the 2006 season that Jeev Milkha Singh has masterfully compiled, it is hard to know just where to start. Four victories across three Tours and securing the Asian Tour’s UBS Order of Merit title with an event to spare may start to tell the story, but there is so much more to this tale.

Mired in the middle of a seven-year winless streak early this year, Singh seemed destined for another year of frustration as injury again overtook ability. However, despite being in 319th position on the world ranking and coming off three missed cuts in four weeks heading into April, victory at the Volvo China Open set a magical season in motion.

More than a dozen top-10 finishes in Asia, Japan and Europe followed through the summer and beyond, before a stunning victory at the European Tour’s season-ending Volvo Masters, where he rifled a six-iron from 205 yards to set up birdie at the penultimate hole, truly grabbed the world’s attention.

Third-place at the UBS Hong Kong Open, where Singh briefly flirted with victory, secured the UBS Order of Merit title as Asia’s champion golfer. When victories at the Japan’s Casio World Open and Nippon Series JT Cup followed late last month, Singh had rocketed into the world’s top-50 and secured first, second and 16th on the final money lists in Asia, Japan and Europe respectively.

Singh’s acceleration into the world’s elite came during a stretch in which he will have played 32 events in 36 weeks by the close of this week’s Volvo Masters of Asia and 40 tournaments overall in 12 countries in 2006. The latter part of that remarkable run comes as he fought through a painful wrist injury, daring not take a break from the richest vein of form his career.

For that, Singh will be rewarded next week in Bangkok by being formally crowned the UBS Order of Merit champion, along with undoubtedly pocketing a slew of other awards for what is surely the best single season by a player in Asian Tour history. Appropriately, the UBS Special Achievement Award may well be among them.

JEEV MILKHA SINGH
Country: India
Date of Birth: December 15, 1971
Residence: Chandigarh, India
Turned Pro: 1993

Official Victories: 1995 Philippine Classic, 1995 Asian Matchplay Championship, 1996 Philip Morris Asia Cup, 1999 Lexus International, 2006 Volvo China Open, 2006 Volvo Masters (European Tour), 2006 Casio World Open, 2006 Nippon Series JT Cup (both Japan), 2006 UBS Order of Merit.

December 11, 2006