As many as four Indians figure in the top-six of the Asian Tour Order of Merit released earlier this week. The growing influence of Indians on that Tour is further revealed by the fact that three Indians figure among the top-four with Kiwi Mark Brown leading the list.

Brown's tally of USD 651,093 in seven appearances is chiefly thanks to his stupendous back-to-back wins at the SAIL Open and the Johnnie Walker Classic 2008 earlier this year. At second position is Jeev Milkha Singh with USD 540,694 in six appearances. (Jeev incidentally registered his third win on the Japanese Tour at the Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup last week).

One spot behind Jeev is the diminutive Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia with earnings of USD 439,930 in six outings. Chowrasia it will be recalled registered an emphatic win at the European and Asian Tour co-sanctioned EMAAR-MGF Indian Masters in early February 2008. This played a major role in his shooting up the rankings.

Arjun Atwal, who struggled most of last year on the PGA and Nationwide Tours, is placed fourth. Atwal's earnings tally stands at USD 419,387 in only four appearances. While Australian Scott Strange is placed fifth at USD 280,985 in seven appearances, Jyoti Randhawa, is attempting to claw his way back to the top of the list. Randhawa is currently placed sixth at USD 256,643 in seven events.

The final four positions in the top-ten are occupied by Wen-Tang Lin of Taipei (USD 249,086 in nine events), Kane Webber of Australia (USD 230,304 in ten), Taichiro Kiyota of Japan (USD 217,163 in six) and Simon Griffiths of England (USD 198,271 in nine).

Among the other Indians in the top-20 are13th ranked Digvijay Singh (USD 152,781 in 11), 18^th ranked Shiv Kapur (USD 121,294 in seven) and 20^th ranked Gaurav Ghei USD 118,079 in 12).