International Series: Jeev Milkha Singh, Gaganjeet Bhullar roll back the years, promise more glory ahead

SINGAPORE: “I’m cramping up,” Jeev Milkha Singh said, half-wincing, having endured a miserable back-nine in the sapping Singapore weather. “Must have got used to the golf carts on the Senior Tours.” There was that familiar laughter.

It was muscle memory that drove the 2008 Singapore Open champion on the front-nine of the par-71 Serapong course as he made the turn at even par.

Six-over, overall, never mind.

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“I was cramping under my shoulder blade so I could make only short swings. Plenty of fluids tomorrow, we carry on,” he said. Gaganjeet Bhullar, who was tied-6th on the opening day of the International Series event at Sentosa GC with a bogey-free four-under, sat alongside. He had a story to share. When he was 20, Bhullar had witnessed history from his vantage point on the ninth hole. “I remember it clearly. Jeev sir was finishing on the 18th hole and I was finishing on the ninth at the same time so I actually saw him hole a putt on the last, holding off Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington.”

Jeev reminded him of the mid-November after noon, “There were all four Major winners there.”

And then, the 54-year-old dropped a bombshell. Had it not been for a rain delay, and an attentive referee watching a broadcast from Thailand, his triumph would never have happened. He would have been disqualified in the first round itself !

“It’s amazing. Ernie, myself, and I don’t remember the third player, we started in the afternoon. On the fourth hole, had a great drive, and we play preferred lies here. I put my ball down and the ball moved. And the rule says, if the ball has moved, you can’t pick it up and put it back again.”

Unaware of the infraction, he played on. “I didn’t realize I’d made a mistake.”

Rain halted play late in the round. Overnight, a referee reviewing highlights spotted the error and alerted the tournament director not to let Jeev sign his card after finishing the round the next day . “If I had, I would have been disqualified.”

Instead, he was assessed a one-shot penalty. He signed for a 73, and then the rest was meant to be . “The golfing gods,” he said, smiling. “Or that referee helped me.”

Jeev met the official the following week. “I told him I owed him dinner. At least a beer,” Singh recalled in wonder. “That was 18 years ago.”

Fast forward to 2026, and the journeyman hasn’t stopped to take a breather. Finishing T-fourth and T-11th in the last two weeks on The Japan Seniors Tour, and making the cut at IS Japan in the first week of April, it’s four tournaments in a row for Jeev. “I’ll still play 30 weeks this year. But the body has to stay with me.”

(The writer is in Singapore at the invitation of International Series).

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