As the son of an Olympic sprinter, Jeev Milkha Singh is entitled to be a fast learner - and he aims to prove it when he represents Asia for the second time in the Royal Trophy.

Singh is the third name on Asian Team Captain Joe Ozaki's team-sheet for the Clash of the Continents to be played at Amata Spring Country Club from January 11-13, lining up alongside the powerful Japanese duo of Toru Taniguchi and Hideto Tanihara.

Singh and Taniguchi were both also in the Asian Team when Asia failed to hold-off the fantastic European Team in the Royal Trophy 2007, and the Indian golfer says they will need to absorb the lessons from that defeat quickly to have a stronger chance of defeating the Europeans.

Singh, who plays full-time in the European Tour, is very familiar with the Asian Team's opponents including the famous partnership of Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, and says they are ideal role models for team golf. They recreated their hugely successful Ryder Cup pairing at the Royal Trophy 2007 and both emerged unbeaten - and they will be in action for Europe again this time.

Singh commented: "Lee and Darren are obviously the sort of players we need to learn from in order to overcome the Europeans. People talk about them having an almost-telepathic understanding, but if you watch them closely you will see the reason they are so good together is much simpler. It is because they communicate so well."

"They discuss tactics and weight up the risks on every shot. Because they know each other's games so well they nearly always take the right option."

"Of course a lot of that is down to experience of playing together so often, and as a new team that is just coming together we do not have those long-established partnerships that are so important."

"But what we can do is make sure we communicate the way they do, and try to re-create the sense of doing what is best for your partner as well as yourself. That is the essence of team golf."

Singh delivered a sound performance in the team events in his first appearance at the Royal Trophy earlier this year. He and Korean battler Y. E. Yang fought back from a seemingly hopeless position - two down with three holes to play - to force a half in their foursomes match with the highly experienced Paul McGinley and Anthony Wall. He also teamed up with S. K. Ho of Korea to earn another half in the fourballs against the Ryder Cup-experienced Swedish duo of Niclas Fasth and Robert Karlsson.

Singh lost to Karlsson 3&2 in the singles, and admits that may have been a match too far as he started feeling the effects of a gruelling 2006 campaign. He played an incredible 39 times in 2006, and had just three weeks off from mid-April onwards. In that highly successful year, Singh managed to win four titles and found himself chasing honours on three different Tours - Asia, Europe and Japan.

Victories in the China Open and the European Masters helped him top the Asian Order of Merit and finish 16th on the European Tour while his impressive wins at the Casio World Open and Golf Nippon Series JT Cup guaranteed him a second place finish in the Japan Tour Order of Merit.

This year has been very memorable for the Indian star with a coveted award allowing him to complete a unique family double. His contribution to Indian golf was recognised when he was named as a recipient of the Padmashri Award from the Indian Government, following proudly in his father's footsteps.

He added: "That award will always stay with me for the rest of my life. My father received this award in 1959 and I received it this year. I'm very excited about it as this is one of the highest awards granted by our Government. It is a very big honour for me."

"I grew up hearing my father talk about receiving this award, and it was wonderful to be able to tell him that I was given the honour as well. Both 2006 and 2007 were very memorable years for me and victory at the Royal Trophy 2008 would be the perfect start to making next year another one to treasure."