By Rahul Banerji
Jeev Milkha Singh returned a five under par 66 to share second place after the first round in the final stage of the PGA Tour Champions qualifying tournament at TPC Scottsdale on Tuesday.
Jeev, who turned 50 last December, finished solo third at the first stage in Nevada to advance to the final stage, according to information received here.
Three-time Indian Open winner Jyoti Randhawa carded a one-over 72 for shared 50th place, while Arjun Atwal, the only Indian to have won on the PGA Tour was T66 with a three-over 74..
The top-five finishers after four rounds will earn their Champions cards.
“I shot five-under today so I’m pretty happy with the round,” Jeev said.
“Coming into this week, you just try to do your best. You play for five spots, and you have to be aggressive, smart aggressive, plus you have to keep yourself in contention, too.
“I’m happy with the position I’m in.”
Trend-setter
In 1998, Jeev became the first player from India to join the DP World (European) Tour. He has won four times on the DP World Tour, has six wins on the Asian Tour and four on the Japan Golf Tour.
He also finished T9 at the 2008 PGA Championship.
Omar Uresti went seven-under 64 to hold the first-round lead. Uresti, who has played in eight events on PGA Tour Champions since 2019, added eight birdies in the first round to take a two-stroke lead heading into the second round.
The veteran pro is in the record books with nine consecutive birdies in the third round of the Korn Ferry Tour’s 1994 Shreveport Open – a string that has yet to be surpassed in PGA Tour-sanctioned competition.
He proceeded to win the event, en route to earning his first PGA Tour card via Q-School that fall. Uresti, 54, made 385 career tour starts in addition to 210 Korn Ferry Tour appearances.
Mark Walker – who has previously gotten starts on PGA Tour Champions – ended his round with three birdies to position himself atop the leaderboard at T2 5-under.
Good record
This is Walker’s fourth appearance at Q-school; his best finish is T8 in 2019. Walker has successfully Monday qualified at 18 Champions Tour events over the past four years.
Alan McLean, Simon Griffiths, Kris Blanks, and Ricardo Gonzalez were also T2 on 66s on the par-71, 7,115 -yard layout.
At the end of four rounds, the top-5 finishers will be fully exempt into all open, full-field events for PGA Tour Champions in the 2023 season.
In addition, players finishing sixth through 30th will be eligible to apply for PGA Tour Champions associate membership for the 2023 season, which allows them to enter weekly event qualifiers.
Also read: Jeev heads star-cast for PGTI Players C’ship at Tollygunge Club
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