On the back of another consistent European season, Jeev Milkha Singh had come to India last year with a new permanent address in London. It seems it’s time for him to start investing in real estate again, this time across the Atlantic.

Jeev, playing in the PGA Tour’s Fall Series after having received the tour’s Special Temporary Membership (STM) in August, took a huge step in the direction of a permanent card on Sunday. Shooting an eight-under 64 in the last round of the $6 million Turning Stone Resort Championship in Verona, New York, Jeev finished in a five-way tie for seventh place with a total of 14-under 274.

The 37-year-old, who already had a little more than $640,000 in prize money this season on the tour before last week, needs to finish better or equal to the 125th-placed player at the end of the current season to receive a card for 2010.

The $174,600 he gets from this finish in the top-ten will put him on course for the approximate target figure of $850,000, which the 125th-placed player last season — Martin Laird — had earned.

“My prospects look very, very good,” Jeev told The Indian Express over phone from New York on Sunday. “A top-ten finish means a big fillip, and would almost seal my card for next season.”

If needed, Jeev still has two tournaments left to win the necessary dollars — his STM card ensuring the limit on the number of sponsor’s exemptions he can receive into PGA Tour tournaments has been done away with. “I will take the next week off and then I will play two more tournaments in America — in Las Vegas (the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open) and the Frys.com Open in Arizona,” he said.

... contd.