Jeev Milkha Singh was still just a glint in his father’s eye

Ahead of the third World Golf Championship of the year, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club, India’s Jeev Milkha Singh reflected on the influence of growing up as the son of a national hero, on the Olympics, and on getting ‘the golfing Gods back on side’.

Jeev Milkha Singh was still just a glint in his father’s eye when Milkha Singh senior – possibly India’s greatest ever athlete – took part in his third and final Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964.

But it was four years earlier and 11 before the birth of his son Jeev that the 200 and 400m sprinter commonly known by the cognomen ‘The Flying Sikh’ had his greatest hour, a performance that solidified his career as one of legend in Indian sporting circles and more importantly helped lay the foundations of a family environment and mentality that would sculpt India’s most successful golfer.

After winning gold in both his events at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, Singh senior became the first from independent India to win gold later that year at the Commonwealth Games in the 400m, and despite breaking the then Olympic Record at the Rome Olympics in 1960 the Indian narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in a photo finish.

“He had a lot to do with my success,” said Singh, this week making his third appearance at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. “I think the reason for that is he gave me a very good environment in the house and he gave me the right guidance. When he needed to be firm with me, he was, and where he needed to be a friend to me, he was a friend to me.  That was fantastic; I've shared a fantastic relationship with him.

“We obviously had a lot of arguments because he always kept repeating the same thing all the time, ‘Discipline and hard work’.  I said, Dad, come on, that's enough.  And he still does it to this date.  He says you're still my child, don't forget that!

“But the best part was that he made sure it didn't get to my head.  He made sure to say ‘You be a self made man’ because if you think your father has done this then you could think you’re going to get everything now, so he would tell me ‘If you're going to take this profession up, you'd better work hard’.”

And while his now 40 year old son Jeev Milkha jokes that his father still attracts more autograph hunters than his professional golfer offspring, Singh junior – winner of his fourth and most recent European Tour title at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open earlier in July, a victory that afforded the Punjab native a place in this week’s World Golf Championship field in Ohio – has forged a highly lucrative sports career of his own, and has his sights set on a return to the upper echelons of the game.

“My goal this year is to get back in the top 50 in the world,” said Singh, who travelled to Akron after a break with his family in India. “I've gone through a tough time with my injuries the last three years, but I've just hung in there and good things have come my way, especially the Scottish Open.

“I think the golfing Gods are back on my side, and I've got a lot of confidence in my game and I'm looking forward to these two big weeks.  I've played in Akron before twice, I've played the US PGA a few times, and it gives me good memories because my ninth place finish at the US PGA at Oakland Hills in 2008 was the best I've had in a Major Championship.”

Now 82 years old, Singh senior’s story is one of such public interest back in India that the tale is currently being immortalised on film with the development of the big screen Bollywood motion picture ‘Bhaag, Milkha, Bhaag’, or in English, ‘Run, Milkha, Run’, tracing the story from his troubled upbringing during the Indo-Pak partition to the cusp of Olympic glory.

“It's an inspirational movie for the youth and for the public in India, and it's going to be released all over the world, the subtitles are going to be in English. We’ve got a good director, a good actor in there, and I think it's going to be an excellent movie.

“I think it's going to touch a lot of people.  There's a fantastic message being sent out because the title means a lot; I can't tell you exactly what it means before the movie is released but one day he was over at my place and he told me the story behind it, and it's going to be a big impact when people see why they named it that way.”

And with golf set to make a comeback at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games after a 108 year absence, it’s abundantly clear that Singh would love to follow his father’s footsteps as an Olympian.

“I'm really excited.  Even my father is.  He's 82 right now, and I'm just hoping that I can carry the Indian flag,” said Singh, who was awarded the Padma Shri – India’s equivalent of a knighthood – in 2007, 49 years after his father was bestowed with the same honour in 1958.

Singh will be 44 when Brazil becomes the first South American country to host the Olympics in four years’ time, but he takes confidence from the later life success of some of golf’s leading lights.

“I'm not going to be close to 50, so I think I've got a fair chance at it; because at 40 you get a new life in golf, I feel, and I think I can last up.  Tom Watson has done it, Greg Norman has done it, Vijay Singh has done it, lots of the boys have done it.  I think I've got a good chance at it.

“Hopefully my dad is still fit and fine at the time because it would be one of the greatest gifts I could give to him.”

And does Jeev Milkha Singh think a film will ever be made with his own extraordinary life forming the subject matter?

“Hopefully,” he laughed, before adding, “If I win a Major…”

In true cinematic timing with the culmination of the London 2012 Olympics coinciding with the last day of the season’s final Major a week on Sunday, perhaps the stage could be set for India’s next golden sporting chapter to be composed in South Carolina.

Pens at the ready, Bollywood screenwriters.