Jeev, Chopra shine in Japan

Jeev Milkha Singh and Daniel Chopra produced outstanding results in the Japanese PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour of the US PGA respectively to continue with the spate of hot performances by Indian professional golfers abroad.

At the 100-million-yen Munsingwear Open KSB Cup, the seventh event on the Japanese Tour, the Chandigarh-based Jeev shot rounds of 69, 65, 70 and 68 to aggregate 16-under 272 for the tournament. That helped him finish tied for the second place, two shots behind winner Tatsuya Mitsuhashi of Japan.

This matched Jeev's best show on the Japanese Tour, where he finished runner-up earlier in 1999 Kirin Open and 2001 JGTO Championship.

At the US$-450,000 Henrico County Open, an event on the second rung tour of the US PGA, Daniel Chopra, who considers himself more Indian than what his Swedish passport suggests having honed his skills at the Delhi Golf Club, was in record-breaking form as he captured his second title in as many starts.

Chopra, winner of the First Tee Arkansas Classic last month, shot rounds of 65, 63, 65 and 65 to aggregate an amazing 30-under 258 for the tournament.

Apart from inscribing his name on the US$-81,000 winner's cheque for the four-stroke victory, Chopra also smashed the previous Tour record of four-day tally (26-under) by four strokes. The only other player in the history of the PGA Tour to touch the 30-under barrier in a four-day event is Ernie Els, who shot 31-under in 2003 Mercedes Championship.

According to information from Okayama, Japan, Jeev, who has shown welcome signs of returning to form in the last two weeks after struggling for more than a year, opened with a three-under 69, but jumped to the top of the leaderboard with a seven-under 65. On day three, the 32-year-old added a two-under 70, but was overshadowed by a sparkling round of nine-under 63 by Mitsuhashi, who assumed a four-stroke lead over Jeev after the penultimate round.

On the final day, Jeev was in the hunt having made five birdies in his first nine holes. However, a three-putt bogey on the 11th stopped his charge and the putts refused to drop after that. He finally finished the day at four-under 68, after missing birdie putts on the 15th, 17th and 18th by a whisker.

"That three-putt on the 11th put the brakes on me. The back nine could have been much better, but I am not complaining. I am playing well after almost two years and I am now excited about the next few tournaments," said Jeev who finished tied tenth last week at the BMW Asian Open.

The finish helped Jeev climb up to 19th on the Money List at 9.17 million yen, and another five million yen would ensure that he keeps his card for the coming season on the Japanese Tour.

Chopra, who has a PGA Tour card, was playing the Henrico County Open after he failed to get a spot into the Bank of America Colonial on the PGA Tour.

He made the most of it and is now almost certain of keeping his PGA Tour card for 2005. An estimated US$-195,000 would ensure a top-20 finish on the Nationwide Tour, thus earning a PGA Tour exemption. Chopra is currently third on the money list at US$-181,000.

Chopra was outstanding from tee to green and ranked first in driving accuracy, second in greens in regulation, ninth in driving distance and tenth in putting during the tournament.

"It's been an amazing week. This has just been huge. There's a bit of magic in that number 30. Not many people will be able to say that, ever. That's something to put on my resume," said Chopra.

Indian golfers were also present at the US$-400,000 SK Telecom Open, an Asian Tour event in Korea, but did not have the best of finish. Harmeet Kahlon was tied 26th at four-over 292, Arjun Singh was tied 38 at +7, while Amandeep Johl was tied 55th at +12.

The tournament was won by the Thai-based Scotsman Simon Yates at nine-under 279.