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Jeev finishes 31st

The vagaries of golf hit ace Indian golfer Jeev Milkha Singh with full force on the final day of the 1.4 million Euro (one million pound) Compaq European Grand Prix tournament, when he went five-over on one single hole to drop down to a 31st place finish on Sunday.

According to information, Jeev was tied for the fourth place after eight holes on the final day, but went for a nine on the 453-yard par-4 9th hole to drop down the race. To add to his misery, he had a bogey-double bogey finish to end the day at seven-over 79 and level-par 288 for the tournament, which concluded at the De Vere Salely Hall in Hexham, England.

The disaster came after Jeev had pulled back from his opening woes by going two-over on the first two holes by shooting birdies on the 4th and 7th holes.

It must have been heart-breaking for Jeev, as he could have moved into the top-20 of the Volvo European PGA Tour Oorder of Merit with a top-5 finish. Instead, he dropped three places to 25th in the rankings. Had he made a par on the 9th hole, he would have earned 14,000 euros more for finishing tied for 8th place at three-under.

The tournament was won by David Park of Wales, at 14-under 274, after playing a level-par final round.

With the victory, he also emulated Greg Norman by becoming only second player to win a title in only his second tournament on the European tour.

England's David Carter, winner of the 1996 Honda-Siel PGA Indian Championship, and Retief Goosen of South Africa were tied for the second place at 13-under 275.

The finish propelled Goosen to the top of the Order of Merti ahead of Colin Montgomerie.

UNI