NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Jeev in sixth place

Jeev Milkha Singh made up for some of his frustrations of narrowly missing a US Open spot, when he made a superb return to the European PGA tour, by shooting four-under 68 on the operning day of the 1.4 million Euro Compaq European Grand Prix tournament, which began at the Dev Vere Slaley Hall course in Hexham, England.

According to information reaching here, the Hero Honda sponsored Jeev shot five birdies as against a single bogey to be placed tied for sixth place with five others after Thursday's round at the par-72,7,088-yard course.

Jeev, who lost in a playoff for the final US Open spot during the sectional qualifiers and was one of the alternates during the championship, began with a birdie on the 429-yard par-4 first hole, but promptly bogied the second hole of same yardage. Thereafter, he made successive birdies on the 7th and 8th (both par-4s), and again on the par-3 14th and par-4 15th to end the day at four under 68.

The 27-year-old Chandigarh pro continued to be erratic off the tee as he missed six fairways. But his immaculate iron-play saw him wriggle out of the situation and reach 16 greens in regulation. Jeev required 30 putts to complete the round.

Jeev is currently ranked 22nd in the European Tour Order of Merit and if the manages to be in top 20 at the end of the season, he would get direct entires into all the major championships of the world.

Leading the tournament was a familiar name of India fans, David Carter of England, winner of the 1996 Honda-Siel PGA championship at AGC, dDaulakuan course. Carter made eight birdies before making a bogey on his final hole to finish the day at seven-under 65.

In second place and one stroke behind Carter at 66 was Peter O ' Malley of Australia.

UNI