Jeev returns to team Asia

Both Jeev and Taniguchi were in the Asian Team when Asia failed to hold off the fantastic European Team in the Royal Trophy 2007, and the Indian golfer says they will need to absorb the lessons from that defeat quickly to have a stronger chance of defeating the Europeans.

Jeev, now a European Tour regular, is familiar with the European opponents, including the famous partnership of Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, and says they are ideal role models for team golf. “Lee and Darren are obviously the sort of players we need to learn from in order to overcome the Europeans. People talk about them having an almost-telepathic understanding, but if you watch them closely you will see the reason they are so good together is much simpler. It is because they communicate so well,” Jeev said. “They discuss tactics and weight up the risks on every shot. Because they know each other’s games so well they nearly always take the right option.

“As a new team that is just coming together we do not have those long-established partnerships that are so important. But what we can do is make sure we communicate the way they do, and try to re-create the sense of doing what is best for your partner as well as yourself,” he said.

Jeev had delivered a sound performance in the team events in his first appearance at the Royal Trophy earlier this year. He and Korean Y E Yang fought back from a seemingly hopeless position — two down with three holes to play — to force a half in their foursomes match with the highly experienced Paul McGinley and Anthony Wall.

He also teamed up with S K Ho of Korea to earn another half in the fourballs against the Ryder Cup-experienced Swedish duo of Niclas Fasth and Robert Karlsson.

Jeev lost to Karlsson 3&2 in the singles, and admits that may have been a match too far as he started feeling the effects of a gruelling 2006 campaign. He played an incredible 39 times in 2006, and had just three weeks off from mid-April onwards.