Jeev breaks into world's top-50 list

NEW DELHI: Jeev Milkha Singh broke into the illustrious list of world's top-50 golfers on Monday to become the first-ever Indian to be eligible to play in the Masters.

Jeev's triumph in the Japan Tour's Nippon Series elevated him eight places to be 47th in the latest world golf rankings.

The Indian, having won his back-to-back titles on Japan tour in last two weeks, realised his dream to see himself in the top-50 and ensure an automatic qualification in the prestigious US Masters next April.

Jeev will be a starter at all Majors including Masters, where no Indian has teed off before and the British Open, where Jeev narrowly missed an entry last year.

His climb in world rankings has been the most astonishing as he started the year as 376th ranked.

But the Chandigarh pro had a spectacular year with four titles this season which included win on Asian, European and Japan tours which catapulted him to the world glory.

His victorious run started with a win in Volvo Open in China which redeemed his career graph in an amazing fashion.

After impressive finishes on the Asian tour, his biggest career win came on the Volvo Masters in Europe, which saw him break into the top 100 in rankings.

Jeev, who had a total of 18 top-10 finishes around the world this year, topped the Asian Order of Merit and finished a career-best third on Japan Money List and 16th in Europe.

Among other Indian golfers, Jyoti Randhawa maintained his 80th place while Shiv Kapur and Gaurav Ghei slipped one spot to be at 172 and 215 respectively

Arjun Atwal dropped five places at 260th.