Jeev pulls out of Hong Kong Open

Jeev Milkha Singh, who withdrew after the first round of the Singapore Open, has also pulled out of the Hong Kong Open to let his injured right-hand finger heal completely ahead of the big events coming up.

New Delhi: Jeev Milkha Singh, who withdrew after the first round of the Singapore Open, has also pulled out of the Hong Kong Open to let his injured right-hand finger heal comepletely ahead of the big events coming up.

The Indians taking part in the event are Gaganjeet Bhullar, SSP Chowrasia, Jyoti Randhawa, Shiv Kapur, Digvijay Singh, Himmat Rai and Chiragh Kumar. The 40-year-old Indian professional, who has twice won the Asian Tour Order of Merit, said, "I wanted to take care and not aggravate it further. I have some very big events coming up, including the Race to Dubai finals and the JT Cup in Japan." The injury is the same which has been bothering Jeev since the time he won the Scottish Open. The win enabled to him qualify for the British Open, where he played despite the injury and he did the same for WGC-Bridgestone. He was then forced to pull out of European Masters and took some rest before playing some events in Japan. This time the injury was mending well when he seemed to have hurt it during the Pro-Am before the Singapore Open. "I actually felt a lot of pain on Wednesday evening (during Singapore Open Pro-Am) and I thought it might get better, but it began to hurt again during the first round. So I spoke to my doctor and withdrew." PTI