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Journalism of Courage
Management gurus say there8217;s no success unplanned, yet big-time sometimes creeps up on you from behind, so pleasantly. And when the peak returns, suddenly, while you were almost enjoying the rut, seven long years of it, you look around for your Nirvana blueprint. Somewhere along the road, you must have taken the right turn.
Jeev Milkha Singh, 34, had his last taste of success in 1999 when he won the Asian Tour8217;s Lexus International at Bangkok. That too had followed a three-year trough 8212; he had won the Philip Morris Asia Cup Asian Tour in 1996 8212; and after the Bangkok triumph, he believed he had regained his winning touch.
Jeev kept travelling and playing, shining on the Nippon Tour. He was earning well, yet always remained on the fringes, the focus being more on the new stars on Indian fairways 8212; Arjun Atwal the first and only US PGA Tour man from India so far, Jyoti Randhawa, Shiv Kapur and the like. The Nippon Tour, interestingly, isn8217;t part of the Asian Tour. It is a Tour within the continent, but pretty much apart. Getting into it itself is a feat. There is money on the table, always, and there are hordes of fanatic fans who will play on at a roadside, floodlit putting course on their way back from office. Yet, the tour8217;s following has remained within the confines of Japan. Jeev had moved to the periphery.
Then he was back, suddenly, at the Beijing China Open this year, before the final blast at the Volvo Masters at Valderrama to become the winner of the single largest sports pay cheque ever by an Indian 8212; Rs 3.78 crore.
What explains this dramatic swing? Ajai Gupta, golfer and coach, who has played with Jeev as a youngster and seen him up-close, feels it8217;s that inexplicable confidence thing. 8220;He has the best golfing mind I have seen in India,8221; he says. 8220;And an incredible determination to succeed.8221; Yet his self-belief had slipped. 8220;Well, it had slipped for Tiger Woods, too,8221; Gupta says. 8220;But he is back, isn8217;t he? So is Jeev. Under such circumstances, it8217;s best to take off for some time. Just sit around and look inwards. Probably Jeev did just that.8221;
That is all about the blueprint, and how Jeev seemed prone to misplacing it. Now, having broken into the top 100 in the world and into the top 20 on the European Tour, and as the highest ranked Indian in the world, he is into the groove again.
This is probably as true to golf as in any walk of life. You have walked those fairways before, seen those trees and those bushes, those white-sand bunkers and water hazards, and you have conquered them in a faraway year. Yet, today, they seem insurmountable. Where8217;s the swing gone?
Jeev swings the same way as he used to. Maybe he putts the distances too, eagles and birdies, the same. What happens is in the mind. That8217;s where you change, recede into yourself.
The other view, expressed by a friend, could have been the alien climes. 8220;He may have been educated abroad, but he remains a dal-roti Indian. That8217;s where the pressure builds up.8221;
When Tiger Woods was on his honeymoon, he concentrated on only that. It was a very private affair on a yacht, but golf was surely way off his mind. He let his ranking slip, and Filipino Vijay Singh took over, but Tiger wasn8217;t bothered. Then he returned and took it all back again. 8220;It happens,8221; says another golf expert, who has observed the likes of Jeev and Randhawa. 8220;It always happens. Isn8217;t it always that you need to break down and fail.8221;
Randhawa has said as much. 8220;How can we forget that he was the first among us to venture out into the big bad world?8221; he feels. 8220;He showed us the way, and we are reaping the benefits of all that now. We have always considered him in the elite league.8221;
It8217;s a determination that comes through in the genes, probably. It was the same determination that had pushed his father, 8216;Flying Sikh8217; Milkha Singh ahead. The intense tension that made him throw up before the race, and how he coped, and just missed the bronze at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. That was a brilliant 400m, the top three breaking the Olympic record and Milkha missing the medal by a heartbreaking 0.1 seconds.
This is the pioneering spirit. This is the talent that lasts. Maybe his mother, Nirmal Kaur, former captain of the Indian volleyball team, also had a say. Such genes are rare. So are such characters.
HIS CAREER SO FAR
1993: Won the NCAA Divison II individual championship.
1993: First pro win: Southern Oklahoma State Open
1995: Philippines Classic, Asian Matchplay Championship both Asian Tour
1996: Philip Morris Asia Cup Asian Tour
1997: Seventh at the European Tour Q school joined in 198
1999: Lexus International Asian Tour
1999: 50th on the Order of Merit, European Tour
2006: Won Volvo China Open second Indian after Arjun Atwal in April to win on the European Tour.
2006: Won season-ending Volvo Masters in October, placed 16th on Order of Merit.
NOTE: Earnings from Nippon Tour: over 999,000
