Vijay Singh
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.
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."
[Singh hits top note but stays a man of mystery, The Daily Telegraph, 31 December, 2004.] 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.
[The Daily Telegraph, ibid.] 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 shouldâ€"or any other woman for that matterâ€"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.
| 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 | }
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.| 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 | 3 | | Total* | 3 | 26 | 29 | 47,741,890 | 2 |
* As at 12 June 2006.
There is a summary of Singh's European Tour career herePGA Tour wins (29)
*1993 (1) Buick Classic
*1995 (2) Buick Classic, Phoenix Open
*1997 (2) Memorial Tournament, Buick Open
*1998 (2) PGA Championship, Sprint International
*1999 (1) Honda Classic
*2000 (1) The Masters
*2002 (2) Shell Houston Open, Tour Championship
*2003 (4) Phoenix Open, EDS Byron Nelson Championship, John Deere Classic, FUNAI Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort
*2004 (9) AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Shell Houston Open, HP Classic of New Orleans, Buick Open, PGA Championship, Deutsche Bank Championship, Bell Canadian Open, 84 LUMBER Classic, Chrysler Championship
*2005 (4) Sony Open in Hawaii, Shell Houston Open, Wachovia Championship, Buick Open
*2006 (1) Barclays Classic
Major championships are shown in bold.
European Tour wins (12)
*1989: Volvo Open Championship
*1990: El Bosque Open
*1992: Turespana Masters, Volvo German Open
*1994: Scandinavian Masters, Lancome Trophy
*1997: South African Open (co-sanctioned with Southern African Tour)
*1998: (PGA Championship)
*2000: (The Masters)
*2001: Malaysian Open, Singapore Masters
*2004: (PGA Championship)
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)
*1984: Malaysian PGA Championship
*1988: Nigerian Open, Swedish PGA (not a European Tour event)
*1989: Nigerian Open, Ivory Coast Open, Zimbabwe Open
*1991: King Hassan Trophy
*1992: Malaysian Open
*1993: Bells Cup
*1995: Passport Open
*1997: Toyota World Match Play Championship (England - not an official European Tour event at that time)
*2000: Taiwan Open
*2003: Canadian Skins Game (unofficial event)*The Presidents Cup (International Team): 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005
*WGC-World Cup (Fiji): 2002In 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™
* Golfinity.com
* MySpace.com
* MyGolfGroups.com
* TheGolfSpace.com * Golfers with most PGA Tour wins
* Golfers with most European Tour wins
* Golfers with most major titles
* Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
* Pravasi Bharatiya Samman* PGA Tour Profile
* Vijay Singh at Golf Stars Online Links to relevant interviews, articles, multimedia clips etc.
* Vijay Singh on About.com Profile and stats
* Results for the last two years from the Official World Golf Rankings site
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