The Flying Sikh Milkha Singh and his equally illustrious son Jeev Milkha Singh have many firsts to their credit. Apart from winning countless acclaims in their respective events, they have another distinction in their CVs — the Padma Shree award. Interestingly, they are the only father-son duo among the Indian sports fraternity to be bestowed with this coveted honour. Jeev, who was chosen for the Padma Shree award for 2007, is the first Indian golfer to get this honour. His father was conferred the Padma Shree in 1958 for winning the gold medal in 400 metres during the Commonwealth Games at Cardiff (Wales)— he is the first Indian athlete to get this award. However, golfing ace Jeev won’t be there to receive the Padma Shree award to be presented tomorrow at New Delhi for he will brace up to tackle the world’s best in the WGC-CA Championship, which tees off today at Doral (Florida). Jeev will fight it out with the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Colin Montgomerie in the event.Milkha Senior told The Indian Express, “Since Jeev is not likely to be in India for the next many months, he will be called later by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to receive the award. In case he is still away, then the award will be the sent to the Governor of Punjab.”
