Jeev signs off tied sixth, misses The Open ticket

Okayama, June 26 (UNI) A flawless front-nine coupled with a hat-trick of birdies in his backward journey were enough for Jeev Milkha Singh to finish tied sixth and take home a prize money of 3,192,500 yen in the Mizuno Open here.

Jeev, however, would be disappointed as he needed to finish among the top four to qualify for the world's oldest major The Open Championship in Royal Liverpool next month.

The Indian, who started the day tied 14th, carded a three-under 69 in the final round and finished with a four-day total of eight-under 288.

The seasoned pro fired two birdies in his bogey-free front-nine to be two-under at the halfway mark but had a disastrous start to his backward journey as he dropped two shots on the 12th and 14th.

He made up for the slip by hitting a hat-trick of birdies from 15th to 17th to improve on his third round perfromance in which he had carded a level-par score.

Meanwhile, at the top of the leaderboard, Korean S K Ho had a disappointing final round of one-under 71 but the performance was enough to win the title for him as he finished wth a four-day total of 14-under 274.

Ho was richer by 20,000,000 yen. Local Tatsu Ichihara and New Zealand's David Smail were tied for the second spot with 11-under 277.

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