Fourteen times international winner, Jeev Milkha Singh, has become the first professional golfer in the world to receive the prestigious 10-year Dubai Golden Visa by the United Arab Emirates.
Jeev, winner of four titles on the European Tour, four on Japan Golf Tour and six on the Asian Tour, has received the 10-year ‘Gold card’ for being an elite professional athlete.
“I am really honoured and humbled that the Dubai government has considered me for the Golden Visa and I am looking forward to making many more special memories here,” said Jeev Milkha in a release.
The visa, which was launched in 2019 by the UAE authorities, allows foreigners to live, work, or study in the Gulf country without the need for a national sponsor. The visa holders can also have 100% ownership of their business on UAE mainland.
The visa is offered to outstanding global players, and eminent people from other categories and has so far been bestowed upon footballers Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Paul Pogba, Roberto Carlos, and Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and her cricketer husband Shoaib Malik. The UAE golden visa is for the duration of five and ten years and is renewed automatically. Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Sanjay Dutt have also received their visas.
49-year-old Chandigarh golfer Jeev Milkha Singh, besides having played in the European and Japan Tours, also played in the USA in his initial years. The golfer has also spent time playing in the UAE, which has 21 golf courses and holds tournaments like Dubai Desert Classic — played at the Emirates Golf Club — and the Dubai Open in 2014. Singh first played in Dubai in 1993 and has also played in some editions of the Dubai Desert Classic. During the 2001 Dubai Desert Classic, Jeev had established a world record at that time when he completed the four rounds with just 94 putts while finishing tied sixth.
In Dubai open, Asian Tour’s final event in 2014, Jeev Milkha had finished tied 31st. In the following years, too, he played in the Asian Tour or European Tour events in the UAE.
Son of the legendary Indian athlete, the late ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh, Jeev won two of the biggest tournaments on the European Tour – the 2006 Volvo Masters at Valderrama and the 2012 Scottish Open. He also won the 2008 Singapore Open and rose to No. 28 in the Official World Golf Ranking, a high that few Asian golfers have managed to surpass.
