By IANS
Miyazaki (Japan) : Jeev Milkha Singh found birdies on the last two holes to register his first top-10 finish of the season as he ended tied seventh at the Dunlop Phoenix golf Tournament.
With just two more events on his schedule in 2007, Jeev, who won four titles in 2006, landed his first top-10 finish since the Volvo Masters of Asia in December 2006. He has however had five results in the top-20.
The fashionable England’s Ian Poulter shot a one-under 69 to complete a start-to-finish win with an 11-under 269 total. Poulter had three birdies and two bogeys to finish three strokes ahead of Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (68), at the par-70 Phoenix Country Club.
Jeev struggled with his putter for the fourth day in a row. Starting the day in seventh place, he reached the greens in regulation unerringly as he parred the first eight holes before dropping a bogey on ninth. A second bogey followed on 10th before he repaired the damage with a birdie on 13th only to give it away on 14th. He was two-over with par on the next two holes and out of top-10. Then the last two birdies brought him back to top-10 as he finished with an even par 70 for the day.
Jeev was the best in the field with 83 percent greens in regulation in the final round and overall he was third in terms of reaching the green in regulation during the week. “Those stats answer all questions about my game; the hitting is fine and it’s the putting that needs work.”
“I have been hitting the ball well all week. Still I am happy with the week’s result and especially with my finish over the last three rounds,” said Jeev, who will defend his Casio World Open title next week.
“I have good memories of World Open and hopefully this finish will carry on next couple of weeks,” added Jeev, who won the closing two events on Japan Tour in 2006.
Poulter, 31, was all smiles after the win. After having his second bogey of the day on the par-3 11th hole, Poulter sank a par putt from 40 feet on the par-4 12th.
Two holes later, he hit a 7-iron second shot to seven feet and sank the birdie putt, while Castano and fellow Englishman Luke Donald both had bogeys on the 15th to fall three strokes behind Poulter. On the 18th, Poulter sealed victory by holing a 10-footer for birdie and received the winner’s check of 40 million yen ($360,068).
Donald shot a 71 to tie for third at seven-under 273 with four-time Japanese money title winner Shingo Katayama (68).
Defending champion Ireland’s Padraig Harrington (69) shared fifth place with American Brandt Snedeker (67) on 275. Sixteen-year-old amateur Ryo Ishikawa (74) and Money leader in Japan Toru Taniguchi (76) were in a five-way tie for 32nd at 4-over 284.