He refuses to panic

Published : Nov 29, 2008 00:00 IST

Jeev Milkha Singh says he is ready to win a major. It doesn’t matter if he wins one really, for he’s at least journeyed to the point where mentally it’s conceivable, and that’s a triumph in itself, writes Rohit Brijnath.

The pink shirt on Sunday (November 16) was the final clue. Because no man dares to wear hot pink when millions are watching unless he’s got the cool of Clooney and the confidence of a wire walker. Which is about where Jeev Milkha Singh seems to be mentally these days. At the Singapore Open, Ernie turned up, so did Phil, and you know a fellow’s a serious contender when a surname isn’t even required. Then the world’s best player with two good knees, P adraig Harrington, arrived, which made it nine major victories between Paddy, the Yank and the South African, but it didn’t matter. Sartorially and otherwise, the Indian had their measure.

Jeev knows things now, about golf, about pressure, about winning. He’s a slight echo of Dravid, in the sense that he’s also a head-down guy whose favourite quote is that dreaded “Stick to the process”. But he stuck, so now he wins. He’s less than a month away from 37, a dusting of white on his goatee, which makes him look like a sort of apprentice sage. At the Singapore Open, he was five shots behind when the final round commenced, but he stayed married to consistency, and this collected march to victory matters, and not just for his own confidence. Every time he does something like that, and he’s done it six times in the past two years, he’s helping erase that encyclopaedia of stories about intimidated Indians abroad in every sport.

Jeev also does it without unnecessary commotion, without controversy, as has Viswanathan Anand this year, and Abhinav Bindra, a trio of soft-spoken gents without a sledging violation between them. Jeev is absent of pretension, wearer of a slow smile that spreads across his face like treacle, and he is admired not just as player but as man. Els tells me one afternoon after a round with the Indian: “He’s a great guy, he’s always the same guy.” Asian Tour boss Kyi Hla Han says the same. An Adelaide photographer says he has a gift for the Indian. Journalists like him because he always stops for questions. Damn, there’s a virtual love fest on here for the man in the pink shirt.

No doubt chess and shooting and golf are internal sports, no sharp elbows or questioning of parentage, but they are also deeply competitive sports. M. S. Dhoni is fascinating, his team is presently soaring, but these individual athletes contest wider fields. Cricket’s province seems to be shrinking, but Jeev faced men from 22 nations in Singapore, Bindra battled shooters from nearly 40 nations in Beijing and roughly 150 countries showed up at the chess Olympiad. Moreover, this threesome fight for their daily bread almost entirely in alien conditions outside the comfort of their own nation. And so in the corners of India, as kids start their striving for some distant greatness, these are men truly to poster on their walls.

Jeev’s progress, like with the others, is proof of the beauty of struggle, of the power of persistence. Anand doesn’t sit back on his accomplishments with a grin, there’s no sense of a man at a finish line but one still running in search of new ideas. Bindra won because he wants to be friends with perfection, and part of his readiness for Beijing included finding the precise height of soles for his shoes and the exact type of bullet that was most accurate for his gun.

Jeev now wins (thrice this year) because he’s lost for so long, because he’s swallowed bad days and kept going, mile after mile, round after round, shot after shot, never really stopping believing. Tiger Woods said once: “I know how to win a major championship. I have that in the back of my mind”, and at an appreciably lesser level, Jeev has accomplished the same. “Now,” says fellow pro Shiv Kapur, “he knows how to win, he knows how to get it done,” despite a swing that you’d probably find at a Kmart discount sale.

It’s a sort of poise under pressure, a sense that he belongs, a refusal to panic. In his final round, he missed two short putts early on, which can cause a leak in a player’s confidence, but Jeev held firm, his hand stayed steady.

Be positive, he might have instructed himself, and his caddie, Janet Squire, made her contribution by apparently telling him, “You missed two short ones when you won in Japan this year.” Squire was only reinforcing what the golfer already knows: if you’ve done it once, you can do it again. He did. It was a sign that Jeev has become, to use a phrase he used about one of his rounds, just “rock solid”, the sort of man his father, carved from old gnarled teak himself, might admire.

At the PGA Championships, where he finished tied 9th, the best by an Asian at a major this year, he told Kapur, “’I’m ready to win a major.” Kapur, who tells the story in Singapore, adds: “It’s a big statement and he’s not the sort of guy who just makes them.

He genuinely believes it.” It doesn’t matter if Jeev wins one really, for he’s at least journeyed to the point where mentally it’s conceivable, and that’s a triumph in itself.

JEEV MILKHA SINGH TIMELINEBorn: Chandigarh, December 15, 1971.1993: Turns pro.

1995: Wins his first two Asian Tour titles — the Philippine Classic and the Asian Matchplay Championship.

1996: Wins Philip Morris Asia Cup; defeats Andrew Coltart as India knocks Scotland out of the Alfred Dunhill Cup at St. Andrews.

1997: Becomes the first Indian to qualify for the European Tour.

1999: Wins the Lexus International in Thailand; finishes 50th in the European Tour Order of Merit.

2001: Sets European Tour record for fewest putts over four rounds, taking only 94 at the Dubai Desert Classic. England’s Russell Claydon had taken 96 at the 2000 Italian Open.

2002: Becomes the first Indian to play four rounds at the U.S. Open, finishing in joint-62nd place.

2006: Wins the Volvo China Open (co-sanctioned by the Asian and European tours), ending a seven-year title drought and becoming the second Indian, after Arjun Atwal, to win a European Tour title.

Wins two Japan Golf Tour titles — the Casio World Open and the Golf Nippon Series JT Cup — and the season-ending Volvo Masters at Sotogrande, Spain.

Finishes the year at 16th on the European Tour Order of Merit; finishes on top of the Asian Tour Order of Merit and becomes the first Indian to make the Top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings, ending the year in 37th place.

2007: Makes Augusta Masters debut, the first Indian to do so, and finishes joint 37th. Is awarded the Padma Shri.

2008: Becomes the first Indian to crack the top-10 at a major, finishing joint 9th at the PGA Championships at Oakland Hills. Jeev and Sweden’s Robert Karlsson had joint-lead at the end of the first round, with 2-under-par 68s.

Wins the Bank Austria Golf Open (European Tour), the Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup (Japan Golf Tour) and the Barclays Singapore Open (Asian Tour), finishing the last one, one stroke ahead of Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els. Becomes the first golfer on the Asian Tour to win a million dollars in a single season, with the Singapore Open winner’s cheque of $792,500.

Compiled by Karthik Krishnaswamy

More stories from this issue

Sign in to unlock all user benefits
  • Get notified on top games and events
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign up / manage to our newsletters with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early bird access to discounts & offers to our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment