Jeev wins Barclays Singapore Open

Sunday, November 16, 2008 (Sentosa)
Jeev Milkha Singh rode his luck and pluck before laying his hands on the Singapore Open title and the cool $795,500 winner's cheque, which virtually assured him of the Asian Tour Order of Merit title.

Stealthily climbing up the leaderboard, Jeev began the day five shots off the lead but went on to blast a final round of two-under 69 and his aggregate of seven-under 277 was good enough to lift his third title of the year, following the Bank Austria Golf Open on European Tour and the Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup on Japan Tour.

Both Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington needed to birdie the final hole to force a play-off but Harrington could not sink the five foot putt while Els' 15-footer curled round the lip, much to Jeev's relief.

"Padraig and Ernie put a good effort in out there but the golfing gods were on my side," a beaming Jeev later said.

"To be honest, I haven't played that well in the last two weeks so, like I said, the golfing gods have been great to me and things worked really well," said the in-form Indian.For Jeev, morning showed the day and for the second day on the trot, the Indian got off to a perfect birdie-birdie start.

He picked up one more shot on the seventh in an impeccable front nine and was in fact going four-under following the 11th hole birdie before bogeys on the 13th and 16th threatened to provide that twist in the tale.

Two par shots to end the round, and some luck in the process, and Jeev finished with a wafer-thin one shot lead over Els and Harrington, who share six Majors between them.

Following are Jeev's title wins on International Tours outside India:
Asian Tour wins (6)2008 (1) Singapore Open2006 (1) Volvo China Open1999 (1) Lexus International1996 (1) Philip Morris Asia Cup1995 (2) Philippines Classic, Asian Matchplay ChampionshipEuropean Tour wins (3)2008 (1) Bank Austria Golf Open2006 (2) Volvo China Open, Volvo MastersJapan Golf Tour wins (3)2008 (1) Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup2006 (2) Casio World Open, Golf Nippon Series JT CupOther International wins (4)1995 (2) Thailand PGA Championship, Toyota Crown Open (Thailand)1994 (1) Shinhan Donghae Open (South Korea - not an Asian Tour event)1993 (1) Bukit Kaira Golf Championship (Malaysia)