The Hindu : Sport : Jeev — making dad proud

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Thursday, Nov 02, 2006
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Jeev — making dad proud

India 's finest sporting moments recently seem to arrive in individual sports, writes Rohit Brijnath

For Jeev Milka Singh there's no debate regarding the best moment of his triumphant Sunday at the Volvo Masters.

No, it wasn't the sheer delight of Europe's best golfers, fellows with CV's a mile long, eight of them in the World top 20, chasing but unable to catch him.

No, it wasn't his second shot on the par-five 17th, where if you're long you're dead in the bunkers, if you're short you're history in the water, and he's in the lead and his Indian knees have got to be shaking, yet he knocks it 12 feet from the flag from 205 yards!

Instead, says Jeev, the best part of a fine day was dad on the phone telling him what he never thought he'd hear.

Father's compliment

As Jeev tells it, Milkha the legendary track runner told him: "Today I feel you have surpassed me."

The son relishes the compliment, but understandably won't accept it. Still, Jeev at least has surpassed almost every Indian who plays sport for a living this year, his feat rivalled only by World shooting championship gold boys Manavjit Singh and Abhinav Bindra.

This win matters because the Volvo Masters is big, among the three biggest events in Europe and no Indian has gone that far. The prize money, 666,660 euros, the most won by any Indian in any sport in one event this year, is big. His total winnings this year (1,173,177 euros in Europe, and over $370,000 in Japan) is big.

Everything's big. But Jeev doing all this and that's no big surprise.

Always he's been India's golfing explorer, just his presence and survival overseas making it less daunting for those Indians who followed. As former player Brandon D'Souza says: "He led the way". And Jeev understands the message he delivers with this triumph, a message that should resonate even beyond golf: "If I can do it, why not them (other Indians)."

Proof of potential

This win matters because it's another compelling reason why corporates should invest in the desperate dreams of young golfers. Firstly, four wins from four different Indians on the Asian Tour in the last two years, and Arjun Atwal's foray onto the U.S. Tour, and now a win in Europe, is confirmation of potential.

Secondly, without demeaning cricket or hockey, India 's finest sporting moments recently seem to arrive in individual sports (i.e. tennis, badminton, chess, shooting), from athletes whose drive and committed families compensate for official ineptitude. Thirdly, golf's lack of athleticism and accent on hand-eye coordination makes it a fine fit for Indians.

A long wait

This win also matters because for the last seven years Jeev's sweat had no adequate reward. Now this is his second triumph this year after the Volvo China Open, not to mention nine top 10s on the Japanese Tour.

Golf's static quality, its extended time to ponder a shot instead of tennis' instinctive reaction, allows demons of over-thinking to collect in the mind. And Jeev is familiar with these demons.

For long, he says, "I was so result-oriented that I was not performing how I should have and piling pressure on myself." He was making the classic error of concentrating on the outcome and not the process. But he battled, trying to focus on his swing, his posture, on what he can control not what his opponents are doing. Sometimes if you forget about the result, it comes.

When we talk, he's just arrived in Fukuoka from Spain, walking the streets in search of dinner, all exhausted elation. "There's a feeing of confidence I take from here (the Volvo Masters). If I've beaten this field, I've moved up."

Golf is what he lives for, the game stitched into his soul, and if Sania Mirza was handed a Padma Shri at 19 then this old path-breaker deserves one at 35.

No other sport

Of course, he may not know about Sania because, as he says, "Golfers make fun of me because I don't follow any other sport". On Sunday, when a caddie asked him "who won", Jeev didn't realise, or care, he was talking about India versus Australia in Mohali.

OK, fine, not cricket, but surely he watches track and field.

"Nope".

Aw, what the hell, after the way he played on Sunday, Dad will forgive anything.

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