Half-fit Jeev flies to the US

For the past few evenings,the youngsters milling at the CGA driving range in Chandigarh have had a rather sought-after visitor in their midst....

For the past few evenings,the youngsters milling at the CGA driving range in Chandigarh have had a rather sought-after visitor in their midst. The centre of all that attention is Jeev Milkha Singh,who has had to extend his holiday from what used to be the one of the busiest golf schedules in the world as he recovers from his shoulder injury.

The Indian No. 1 sustained the tendonitis in the rotator cuff of his left shoulder in mid-March and was hoping to recover in three weeks time. Those plans received a setback as the pain and swelling refused to abate. It has resulted in some much valued time spent at home and a few tips for the lucky youngsters,but has also left a frustrated Jeev pining to get back in action.

Taking a gamble

This Sunday,Jeev will finally fly to the United States,willing to take a gamble rather than lose more playing opportunity as well as the momentum that he had built up in what is a rather important season for the PGA Tour rookie. Its extremely frustrating to not be able to play, Jeev said,speaking to The Indian Express from Chandigarh on Friday.

Things have not been good for me at all. You could say this is the life of a sportsperson,but the healing is taking much longer than I had anticipated. But having been out for eight weeks,the time has come for me to take a chance and begin playing again, he added.

The pain subsides as long as Jeev is hitting irons,but shoots up as soon as the driver is employed. Scans have not shown any tear,and that was the only hint of silver in the gloomy clouds for the Chandigarh player.

Jeev,who had originally planned to get back almost a month ago at the Verizon Heritage,is now scheduled to play at the Texas Open in the coming week. Im going to play that tournament and gauge my status, Jeev,who has dropped down in the world rankings to 80 from 65 before the injury,said. I have to figure out how my shoulder copes with the pressure. If it gets worse,I will have to try out further treatments options. But any more time away from being competitive is not an attractive proposition.

Unusual situation

It is quite an unusual situation for the 38-year-old,who is famous for the number of tournaments he plays across the globe. I think it was tougher for me because Im used to playing so much, Jeev said. I was really doing nothing at all. Just focusing on physiotherapy and spending time with family. But it can get really tough to handle sometimes.

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Jeev was not eligible for the Players Championship that started on Thursday in Florida,but there are bigger fields to play for,with qualifying for the US Open,scheduled to begin on June 17,still holding a real possibility.

The three tournaments in Texas the Byron Nelson Championship and the Crown Plaza Invitational at Colonial follow in the two weeks after the Texas Open will be the key to achieving that goal. Im going to go in with a positive frame of mind. It has been a hard past few weeks and hopefully the next few will be quite the opposite.