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Jeev shares second spot after first round

Joy Chakravarty

India's Jeev Milkha Singh looked all set to become only the second Indian ever to play the prestigious British Open golf championship when he was tied for the second place after playing a five-under 66 round in the final qualifiers at the Monifieth Links course.

According to information, the 27-year-old Indian was one stroke behind leader William Westner of South Africa and tied along with amateur G Wolstenholme and Thai Prayad Marksaeng, another star of the Asian PGA's Davidoff Tour.

The second and the final round is to be played on Monday.

Jeev and Marksaeng are part of the 42-member Johnnie Walker's 'Asian Invasion' team which is among the 480 participants aspiring to grab the 48 spots available for the British Open, which begins at Carnoutsie from 15th July.

The final qualifiers are being played in four links courses around Carnoutsie and top 12 finishers from each venue will make it to the third major of world golf, which offers a total prize-money of approximately $-2.8 million.

The other Indians, unaccustomed to the windy conditions of links courses, struggled under tough conditions. Vivek Bhandari was tied for the 35th place after a 73 round at Downfield, while India-born Swede Daniel Chopra was tied 42nd at 74 and 1998 Wills Indian Open champion Feroz Ali was tied 80th with a first-round score of 78 at the same venue. At Monifieth, the 1998 Hero Honda Masters winner Jyoti Randhawa was tied for 80th place at four-over 75. At Montrose, Arjun Singh was best placed at level-par 71 and tied for 33rd place.

The scores of Amritinder Singh, Arjun Atwal and Amandeep Johl were not available.