Vijay Singh

Vijay Singh (born 22 February 1963), nicknamed "The Big Fijian", is a professional Fijian golfer who was number one in the Official World Golf Rankings for 32 weeks in 2004 and 2005. He has won three major championships (The Masters in 2000 and the PGA Championship in 1998 and 2004) and was the leading PGA Tour money winner in 2003 and 2004. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2006. He won the FedEx Cup in 2008.

An Indo-Fijian of Hindu background, [ [http://www.nndb.com/people/678/000085423/ Vijay Singh ] ] [ [http://www.jockbio.com/Bios/Singh/Singh_bio.html JockBio: Vijay Singh Biography ] ] Singh was born in Lautoka, Fiji and grew up in Nadi. His name means "Victorious Lion".

Singh, a resident of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, is the son of Mohan Singh, 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 his meticulous preparation, often staying at the range hours before and after his tournament rounds working on his game.

Singh is married to Ardena Seth, who is Malaysian. They have a son, Qass Seth.

Career history

Singh recollected to reporters about his childhood: "When we were kids we couldn't afford golf balls so we had to make do with coconuts. My father used to say, 'Little Vijay, golf balls don't fall off trees you know,' so I found some that did!" [ [http://www.pacificislands.cc/pm112004/pmdefault.php?urlarticleid=0013 "Golf's Humble Fijian: Vijay Singh's Rise To Number One"] . Peter Rees. "Pacific Magazine". Published November 1, 2004. Accessed 8 January 2007.] Growing up, he played snooker, cricket, football, and also the island's most popular sport, rugby.

Two years after turning professional, in 1984, Singh won the Malaysian PGA Championship. However, his career was plunged into crisis after he was suspended from the Asian Tour in 1985 over allegations he doctored his scorecard. It was alleged that he lowered his score from one over to one under in order to make the cut, but Singh denies this, saying that in any case, it should only have resulted in disqualification from the event rather than a ban.

Singh felt he had been more harshly treated because the marker was "the son of a VIP in the Indonesian PGA." [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2004/12/31/sgspan31.xml "Singh hits top note but stays a man of mystery"] , Art Spander. "The Daily Telegraph", 31 December, 2004. Accessed 8 January 2007.] He then took a job at the Keningau Club in Sabah, Malaysia, before his move to the Miri Golf Club in Sarawak. While this was a period of hardship for him, he continued to gain experience. [ [http://www.sptimes.com/News/041000/Sports/Experience_a_good_tea.shtml "Experience a good teacher"] . Hubert Mizell. "St. Petersburg Times". Published on April 10, 2000. Accessed 8 January 2007.] He saved the money he needed to resurrect his career and began to re-enter tournaments. 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, Singh won 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 struggles firmly behind him. He won four times in 1989, at the Volvo Open di Firenze, Ivory Coast Open, Nigerian Open and Zimbabwe Open. He also finished tied for 23rd at the British Open. 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 entered the PGA Tour in 1993, winning his first PGA Tour event, the Buick Classic in a playoff over Mark Wiebe. That victory led to his 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 (the 66 tied a course record) and earning him his first Major title. He followed this up 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 had the second highest single-season total in PGA Tour history) with $7,573,907, beating Tiger Woods by $900,494, though Singh played 27 tournaments compared to Woods' 18 tournaments. Singh also set a 9-hole scoring record at the U.S. Open with a 29 on the back nine of his second round. [ [http://cgi.cnnsi.com/golfonline/2003/us_open/news/2003/06/15/usopen_records/ U.S. Open Championship records] ] 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 involving Singh surrounding the year's event at the Bank of America 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 would not play if he were paired with her. What he actually said is that he would not 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."

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

Singh 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 former award is decided by a vote of active PGA Tour 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. Thirty-year-old Karrie Webb was inducted into the Hall of Fame in October 2005, but Singh 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 took place in October 2006.

In 2006 Singh played enough European Tour events to be listed on the European Tour Order of Merit title for the first time since 1995.

At the start of the 2007 season, Singh won the Mercedes Championship which was the first FedEx Cup event in PGA Tour history. He won again at The Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, but did not win for the rest of the year which turned into a disappointing year for Singh. He did not finish in a top ten of a major for the first time in ten years and finished 10th in the FedEx Cup race. He went through swing changes during the end of 2007 which resulted in weeks of missed cuts and staying outside the top ten through the Presidents Cup.

A new swing brought big changes for Vijay in 2008, although he had good opportunities at Pebble Beach and Bay Hill, he was not competing at a high level for the first half of the year. His game was plagued by poor putting for the better part of two years, but his season started to turn around with a tied for fifth at the Travelers Championship. After a missed cut at the British Open Vijay Singh won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in early August for his first win of the year and first World Golf Championship. His win had been a relief after missing short putts throughout the week. He missed the cut the following two weeks including at Oakland Hills for the PGA Championship and entered the PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs ranked 7th in the standings. At the first playoff event Vijay Singh prevailed for his first FedEx Cup win defeating Sergio García and Kevin Sutherland in a playoff. On the first playoff hole García and Singh matched long birdie putts before Singh won with birdie on the second playoff hole. Singh was propelled into first place in the FedEx Cup race with three events remaining. At the second event of the playoffs, he triumphed once again, this time at the Deutsche Bank Championship bewildering the field with a five strokes victory and a final round 63. He had won three times in his last five starts and created an almost insurmountable lead in the points race. He would not contend in the remaining two events, but by playing in both the 2008 FedEx Cup title belonged to Singh. His season which looked to be a major disappointment in July turned into an historic year for Singh: he surpassed Harry Cooper for most PGA Tour wins of all time for a non-American.

After the playoffs, Singh announced his withdrawal from a couple of Asian Tour events because of a nagging injury and was advised by doctors to rest. He could miss as much as eight weeks. [ [http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hqX-2pCR_5fO6TZfFgwIqUG23_TA/ Star golfer Singh sidelined up to eight weeks by injuries] ]

Singh has won 22 times since turning 40 — beating the record previously set by Sam Snead. He is the second man to reach $60 million in PGA Tour career earnings, after Tiger Woods. His 34 career victories are the most on the PGA Tour by a non-American player and place him with 13th most all-time.

Although Singh is a right-handed golfer, he once said on TV he was "about a 6 handicap" left-handed. Fact|date=June 2008

Media relations

Controversy surrounded Singh in 2003 before the Bank of America Colonial. Annika Sörenstam was scheduled to play the event, and Singh was quoted as saying, "I hope she misses the cut ... because she doesn't belong out here." He later said that the substance of his interview to an Associated Press reporter was that she would be displacing some other struggling male player, for whom he had his sympathies. However, the media focused on this statement. "Golf Digest" wrote that Singh had become "pro golf's bad guy". Others called him a "sexist oaf", a "big, whiny, whimpering baby" and "Vijay the Villain". [ [http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_0971.shtml "Defending PGA Champ Vijay Singh Is Tour's Most Misunderstood Player"] . Steve Politi. BlackAthlete Sports Network. Published on August 12, 2005. Accessed 8 January 2007.]

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. [ [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/golf/05/18/singh.fiji/ Singh returns to native Fiji] ]

Professional wins (57)

PGA Tour wins (34)

¹ Defeated Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco in three-hole playoff: Singh (3-3-4=10), Leonard (4-3-4=11), and DiMarco (4-3-4=11)

Results timeline

¹Cancelled due to 9/11
DNP = Did not play
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
NT = No Tournament
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

PGA Tour career summary

"* Complete through September 28, 2008"
There is a summary of Singh's European Tour career [http://www.europeantour.com/default.sps?pageid=127&pagegid=%7B9D8C05D5%2DC670%2D4B56%2D9906%2DE18E922EB1D8%7D&playerId=4253&seasontitle=-1 here]

Team appearances

*Presidents Cup (International Team): 1994, 1996, 1998 (winners), 2000, 2003 (tie), 2005, 2007
*WGC-World Cup (representing Fiji): 2002

ee also

*Golfers with most PGA Tour wins
*Golfers with most European Tour wins
*Golfers with most wins in men's major championships
*Most PGA Tour wins in a year
*Longest PGA Tour win streaks
*Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
*Pravasi Bharatiya Samman

References

External links

* [http://www.pgatour.com/players/00/65/67/ Profile on PGA Tour's official site]
* [http://www.europeantour.com/publish.sps?syndicatorguid=&rmasiteinstanceguid=&pagegid=%7B20E6AA6B-0225-4C71-BD89-2ACBEE615D69%7D&playerid=4253 Profile on European Tour's official site]
* [http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/players/bio.sps?ID=653 Results for the last two years from the Official World Golf Rankings site]
* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,1358410,00.html Interview with the Observer]