Jeev Milkha Singh

Jeev Milkha Singh, born born 15 December 1971 in Chandigarh, India, was the first Indian golfer to become a member of the European Tour. He has been the highest ranked Indian golfer in the world and first broke into the top 50 in October 2006, moving from 104th to 48th. He is the son of the famous Olympic athlete Milkha Singh who represented India in 200m and 400 races for the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olypics. Jeev won the NCAA Division II individual golf championship in 1993 and his first professional win was also in 1993 at the Southern Oklahoma State Open. In 2006 he won the Volvo China Open and he also won the Volvo Masters, taking home $840,000 in prize money which was at the time the biggest cheque won by an Indian in individual sport. In 2007 he became the first Indian player in the US Masters. He won the Asian Tour's Order of merit, given to the number 1 player, for 2006 and again in 2008, becoming the first player to do this. He was awarded the Player's Player of the Year award in 2008 and became the first Asian golfer to earn more than $1 million in a single season, amassing a whopping $1.45 million in 11 tournaments. In 2008 Jeev won the Australian Open title, Singapore Open, for which he was awarded $792,500 and the Golf Nippon Series JT Cup for the 2nd time. Famous Sikhs thinks golf is a very lucrative sport and Sikhs should definitely be encouraged to play, especially now that there are players like Jeev who are great role models.