By V. Krishnaswamy, IANS,
Sentosa (Singapore) : Driven by the desire to win his first Major, top Indian golfer Jeev Milkha Singh plans to cut down on tournaments to give more time to his body to recover from injuries.
“I’m going to slow down next year. In fact, I was forced to take about six weeks off – four weeks after the PGA. But then I played the Colonial and took another two weeks off. What I’m going to do is to cut down the number of tournaments. I normally play about 39 to 40 tournaments each year but I’m going to cut it down to 33 to 34 next year,” Jeev told IANS in an interview on the eve of $5 million Barclays Singapore Open here Wednesday.
The highly popular golfer, who is one of the busiest players in terms of number of events he plays each year, also admitted he participated in lot of events this year only to fulfil his obligations towards the three Tours of which he is a part.
“Next year, I’m just going to focus on Europe and US. I need to cut down and slow down as advised by my physio to prevent injuries. It won’t be good if I don’t watch out.
Jeev said that his main goal this year was to finish in the top-15 in the Order of Merit for the European.
“I finished 12th and that gets me to all the Majors except the Masters. So hopefully some good finishes coming down the road and move me back to the top 50th from my current 60th place in the world will confirm my Masters invitation,” he said.
Jeev, who is looking for his second Asian Tour Order of Merit title at the Singapore Open, will have his share of chance as the winner could well seal the Order of Merit. He has been clubbed with Mark Brown, who is leading the Order of Merit race.
“It’s a big tournament and this will be a very important week for the both of us. In fact, we are going to play together tomorrow and it will be fun to see what comes out of it,” he said.
On chances of winning the Order of Merit title, Jeev said, “I’ve already won it in 2006 and to win it again this year would be great. Obviously, winning the Order of Merit of any Tour in the world is great.”
“Last two weeks were not great for me. I was struggling with the weather and my concentration. There were long waits in between getting on and off the golf course. Otherwise I have been playing rock solid and my injuries are healing and that is a positive sign going into the competition this week..”
His last appearance on the Serapong Course here was in 2006 and after playing a round felt that scoring will be lower with less rough but lot depended on the positions of the pins.
“Earlier in 2006, I thought it was the rough but now the greens are firm and the sides have been shaved off so basically if you miss it on the wrong side, your ball is probably going to end up in the water. And if you miss the greens, you are going to have a lot of tough up and down chips. I think you will have to try and hit the middle of the green and try to make the most out of it,” he said.