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Vijay Singh

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Vijay Singh
Personal information
Sporting nationalityFijian
ResidencePonte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA
Career
Collegen/a
Highest ranking1 (5 September 2004)[1]
(32 weeks)

Vijay Singh (born 22 February, 1963) is a Fijian golfer of Indian ancestry who has won tournaments in many parts of the world and currently plays mainly on the U.S. based PGA TOUR. He was born in Lautoka, Fiji and grew up in Nadi. He has won three major championships (one Masters in 2000 and two PGA Championships in 1998 and 2004) and was the leading PGA Tour money winner in 2003 and 2004. In 2004 and 2005 he spent a total of 32 weeks at the top of the Official World Golf Rankings, making him the only man to displace Tiger Woods as World Number 1 so far this century.

Singh, a resident of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, is the son of an airplane technician who also taught golf. Growing up, he admired the swing of Tom Weiskopf, using it as an early model for his own. Singh is known for the long hours he spends practicing, often staying at the range hours before and after his tournament rounds working on his game.

Standing six feet two (1.88 m), Vijay is married to Ardena Seth, who is Malaysian. They have a son, Qass Seth, born on 16 June 1990.

Career history

Singh began playing professionally in 1982 and has won several tournaments around the world, including the Malaysian PGA Championship in 1984. He was suspended from the Asian Tour in 1985 over allegations he doctored his scorecard. Singh later claimed that it was a misunderstanding, and should only have resulted in disqualification from the event rather than a ban, but that he was harshly treated because the marker was "the son of a VIP in the Indonesian PGA." [2] He took a job at the Keningau Club in a remote part of Borneo, where most of the members were busy Shell Oil executives, who left him with plenty of time for practice. [3] He saved the money he needed to resurrect his career and began to compete in tournaments again. He won the Nigerian Open in 1988, and at the end of that year he entered the European Tour Qualifying School for the second consecutive year, and was successful on this occasion. In 1989 he won the his first European Tour title at the Volvo Open Championship in Italy and finished 24th on the European Tour Order of Merit, putting his early stuggles firmly behind him. He won on the European Tour again in 1990 and did so twice in 1992. He also won several tournaments in Asia and Africa in this period.

Singh finally made it to the PGA Tour in 1993. He won his first PGA Tour event, the Buick Classic in a playoff over Mark Wiebe. That victory led to him being named the 1993 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. After being hampered with back and neck problems in 1994, he came back to win the Buick Classic again in 1995 as well as the Phoenix Open. After playing well in 1996 (but with no victories), he won both the Memorial Tournament and the Buick Open in 1997.

In 1998, Singh was victorious at the PGA Championship at Sahalee in Sammamish, Washington, playing a 70-66-67-68 over the four days (66 tied a course record) and giving him his first Major title. He followed up his first Major title by winning The Masters in 2000 with a three-stroke victory over Ernie Els.

Singh did not win on the PGA Tour in 2001, but finished the year with a Tour-best 14 top-10 finishes and was fourth on the money list with $3,440,829 for the year. In 2002, he won at the Shell Houston Open at TPC at The Woodlands, setting a new 72-hole scoring record with a 65, and at the Tour Championship, winning by two strokes over Charles Howell III.

2003 proved to be a very successful year for Singh. He won four tournaments, had 18 top-10 finishes and was the PGA TOUR's money leader (and second all-time single-season total) with $7,573,907, beating Tiger Woods by $900,494. His victories came at the Phoenix Open, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, the John Deere Classic and the FUNAI Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort. He narrowly lost the vote for the PGA of America's Player of the Year to Tiger Woods.

However, the 2003 season was also spotted with controversy surrounding the year's event at the Colonial. LPGA star Annika Sörenstam became the first woman to play at a PGA TOUR event since Babe Zaharias at the 1945 Los Angeles Open. Surrounding this fervor, Singh was misquoted as having said that Sörenstam "didn't belong" on the men's tour and that he wouldn't play if he were paired with her. What he actually said is that he wouldn't be paired with her because his playing partner was being selected from the past champion's pool. Singh later clarified, "There are guys out there trying to make a living. It's not a ladies' tour. If she wants to play, she should—or any other woman for that matter—if they want to play the man's tour, they should qualify and play like everybody else."

Continuing his torrid pace Singh began 2004 by winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at -16 and winning $954,000 in prize money. This was his first win on tour in 2004 and his 16th all-time on the PGA Tour. It was his 12th consecutive top-10 finish, which is two shy of Jack Nicklaus' all-time record.

Singh won the final major of 2004, winning the PGA Championship, his third major, in a three-hole playoff over Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco. Singh was the leader by one shot over Leonard going into the final round, but made no birdies in the final round, finishing regulation at 67-68-69-76=280. His final round of 76 was the highest winning score by a major champion since 1955. The playoff was a tense affair, and Vijay 's birdie on the first playoff hole, his first birdie of the day, proved to be the difference.

On September 6 2004 (Labor Day), Singh won the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Massachusetts. With the win, Singh overtook Tiger Woods at the top of the Official World Golf Rankings, ending Wood's streak of 264 weeks at the top of the golf world.

He finished the 2004 season with a career-best nine victories, 18 top-10s, and a record $10,905,166 in earnings and was named the PGA TOUR's and PGA of America's Player of the Year. The latter award is decided by a vote of active PGA players.

Despite picking up a win early in 2005, Singh lost his world number 1 ranking when Tiger Woods won the Ford Championship at Doral on 6 March, but just two weeks later he took it back again after notching up top three finishes in three consecutive weeks. Followings Woods' win at the 2005 Masters, Singh once again lost his place as World No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings and finished tied for fifth place. In April, he became the youngest living person elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, garnering 56% of the ballot. 30-year-old Karrie Webb was inducted into the Hall of Fame in October 2005, but remained the youngest living electee, as Webb qualified for the Hall without an election process. (The 19th century great Tom Morris, Jr., who was elected in 1975, died at age 24.) Singh deferred his induction for a year, and it will take place in October 2006. [1]

In 2006 Singh is competing for the European Tour Order of Merit title for the first time since 1995. By February he has already played three European Tour events outside of the majors and World Golf Championships, so he only needs to play one more to make the eleven European Tour-sanctioned event requirement.

Singh's career has been marked by steady sustained progress based on exceptional commitment to practice. Even when he was in his late thirties few suspected that he was a future World Number 1, but he has won 17 times since turning 40 - equalling Sam Snead's record. His 29 career victories is the most on the PGA Tour by a non-American player.

Results in major championships

Tournament 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
The Masters DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP T27 CUT T39 T17 CUT T24
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP CUT DNP T10 T7 T77 T25 T3
British Open T23 T12 T12 T51 T59 T20 T6 T11 T38 T19 CUT
PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP T48 4 CUT CUT T5 T13 1 T49
Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
The Masters 1 T18 7 T6 T6 T5 T8
U.S. Open T8 T7 T30 T20 T28 T6 T6
British Open T11 T13 CUT T2 T20 T5 CUT
PGA Championship CUT T51 8 T34 1 T10 CUT

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

PGA Tour career summary

Year Majors Other wins Total wins Earnings ($) Rank
1993 0 1 1 657,831 19
1994 0 0 0 325,959 52
1995 0 2 2 1,018,713 9
1996 0 0 0 855,140 17
1997 0 2 2 1,059,236 16
1998 1 1 2 2,238,998 2
1999 0 1 1 2,283,233 4
2000 1 0 1 2,573,835 5
2001 0 0 0 3,440,829 4
2002 0 2 2 3,756,563 3
2003 0 4 4 7,573,907 1
2004 1 8 9 10,905,166 1
2005 0 4 4 8,017,336 2
2006* 0 1 1 2,964,465 5
Total* 3 26 29 47,741,890 2

* As of 13 August 2006.

There is a summary of Singh's European Tour career here

Tournament victories

PGA Tour wins (29)

Major championships are shown in bold.

European Tour wins (12)

Singh's major championship victories are repeated here because the three major championships played in the United States became official events on the European Tour in 1998.

Other professional wins (13)

Team appearances

Other interests and facts

In May 2005, Singh was appointed a goodwill ambassador for Fiji. He said that he did not expect anything in return from the Fijian government for representing his country. At a press conference on 18 May 2005, Singh commented on what he said was a deterioration in race relations in Fiji, saying that for such a small country, people of all races should live together, put their differences aside, and get on with life. Relations between Indo-Fijians and indigenous Fijians had been more harmonious when he was younger, he said.

Singh has purchased an island on The World Islands archipelago in Dubai. He intends to build a water golf course on his property.

Although he is a right-handed golfer, Singh is also a better than scratch golfer left handed.

Vijay Singh Fan Club™

See also

References

  1. ^ "Week 36 2004 Ending 5 Sep 2004" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  2. ^ Singh hits top note but stays a man of mystery, The Daily Telegraph, 31 December, 2004.
  3. ^ The Daily Telegraph, ibid.
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