Vijay Singh

Vijay Singh
Personal Information
Birth	22 February 1963 (1963-02-22) (age 46) Lautoka, Fiji
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight	208 lb (94.3 kg)
Nationality	Fiji
Wife	Ardena Seth
Children	Qass Seth
Residence	Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
College	None
Career
Turned Pro	1982
Current tour	PGA Tour (joined Spring 1993) European Tour (rejoined 2006)
Professional wins (57)
PGA Tour	34 (14th all time)
European Tour	13 (4 co-sanctioned with PGA Tour)
Other	14
Best Results in Major Championships Wins: 3
Masters	Won 2000
U.S. Open	T3: 1999
The Open	T2: 2003
PGA Championship	Won 1998, 2004
Awards
Rookie of the Year	1993
PGA Tour Money Winner	2003, 2004, 2008
PGA Tour Player of the Year	2004
Vardon Trophy	2004
Byron Nelson Award	2004
FedEx Cup	2008

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,^[1][2] 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!"^[3] 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."^[4] 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.^[5] 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. ^[6] 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 missing the 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 won the PGA Tour money list for the third time in his career and 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.^[7]

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.

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".^[8]

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.^[9]

Professional wins (57)

PGA Tour wins (34)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning Score	Margin of Victory	Runner(s) up
1.	June 13, 1993	Buick Classic	-4 (72-68-74-66=280)	Playoff	Mark Wiebe
2.	January 29, 1995	Phoenix Open	-15 (70-67-66-66=269)	Playoff	Billy Mayfair
3.	May 21, 1995	Buick Classic	-6 (70-69-67-72=278)	Playoff	Doug Martin
4.	June 2, 1997	Memorial Tournament	-14 (70-65-67=202)	2 strokes	Jim Furyk, Greg Norman
5.	August 10, 1997	Buick Open	-15 (67-73-67-66=273)	4 strokes	Joe Ozaki, Brad Fabel, Curtis Strange, Tom Byrum, Russ Cochran, Ernie Els
6.	August 16, 1998	PGA Championship	-9 (70-66-67-68=271)	2 strokes	Steve Stricker
7.	August 23, 1998	Sprint International	(15-12-6-14=47)	6 points	Phil Mickelson, Willie Wood
8.	March 14, 1999	Honda Classic	-11 (71-69-68-69=277)	2 strokes	Payne Stewart
9.	April 4, 2000	The Masters	-10 (72-67-70-69=278)	3 strokes	Ernie Els
10.	March 31, 2002	Shell Houston Open	-22 (67-65-66-68=266)	6 strokes	Darren Clarke
11.	November 3, 2002	The Tour Championship	-12 (65-71-65-67=268)	2 strokes	Charles Howell III
12.	January 26, 2003	Phoenix Open	-23 (67-66-65-63=261)	3 strokes	John Huston
13.	May 18, 2003	EDS Byron Nelson Championship	-15 (65-65-69-66=265)	2 strokes	Nick Price
14.	September 15, 2003	John Deere Classic	-16 (66-68-69-65=268)	4 strokes	J. L. Lewis, Chris Riley, Jonathan Byrd
15.	October 26, 2003	FUNAI Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort	-23 (64-65-69-67=265)	4 strokes	Scott Verplank, Stewart Cink, Tiger Woods
16.	February 8, 2004	AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am	-16 (67-68-68-69=272)	3 strokes	Jeff Maggert
17.	April 26, 2004	Shell Houston Open	-11 (74-66-69-68=277)	2 strokes	Scott Hoch
18.	May 3, 2004	HP Classic of New Orleans	-22 (70-65-68-63=266)	1 stroke	Joe Ogilvie, Phil Mickelson
19.	August 1, 2004	Buick Open	-23 (63-70-65-67=265)	1 stroke	John Daly
20.	August 15, 2004	PGA Championship	-8 (67-68-69-76=280)	Playoff	Justin Leonard, Chris DiMarco
21.	September 6, 2004	Deutsche Bank Championship	-16 (68-63-68-69=268)	3 strokes	Tiger Woods, Adam Scott
22.	September 12, 2004	Bell Canadian Open	-9 (68-66-72-69=275)	Playoff	Mike Weir
23.	September 26, 2004	84 Lumber Classic	-15 (64-68-72-69=273)	1 stroke	Stewart Cink
24.	October 31, 2004	Chrysler Championship	-18 (65-69-67-65=266)	5 strokes	Tommy Armour III, Jesper Parnevik
25.	January 16, 2005	Sony Open in Hawaii	-11 (69-68-67-65=269)	1 stroke	Ernie Els
26.	April 24, 2005	Shell Houston Open	-13 (64-71-70-70=275)	Playoff	John Daly
27.	May 8, 2005	Wachovia Championship	-12 (70-69-71-66=276)	Playoff	Jim Furyk, Sergio García
28.	July 31, 2005	Buick Open	-24 (65-66-63-70=264)	4 strokes	Zach Johnson, Tiger Woods
29.	June 11, 2006	Barclays Classic	-10 (70-64-72-68=274)	2 strokes	Adam Scott
30.	January 7, 2007	Mercedes Championships	-14 (69-69-70-70=278)	2 strokes	Adam Scott
31.	March 18, 2007	Arnold Palmer Invitational	-8 (70-68-67-67=272)	2 strokes	Rocco Mediate
32.	August 3, 2008	WGC-Bridgestone Invitational	-10 (67-66-69-68=270)	1 stroke	Stuart Appleby, Lee Westwood
33.	August 24, 2008	The Barclays	-8 (70-70-66-70=276)	Playoff	Sergio García, Kevin Sutherland
34.	September 1, 2008	Deutsche Bank Championship	-22 (64-66-69-63=262)	5 strokes	Mike Weir

PGA Tour playoff record (8-4)

European Tour wins (13)

• 1989 (1) Volvo Open Championship
• 1990 (1) El Bosque Open
• 1992 (2) Turespana Masters Open de Andalucia, Volvo German Open
• 1994 (2) Scandinavian Masters, Lancome Trophy
• 1997 (1) South African Open (co-sanctioned with Southern African Tour)
• 1998 (1) PGA Championship
• 2000 (1) The Masters
• 2001 (2) Carlsberg Malaysian Open, Caltex Singapore Masters
• 2004 (1) PGA Championship
• 2008 (1) WGC-Bridgestone Invitational

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

Other wins (14)

• 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 TELUS Skins Game
• 2007 Kolon-Hana Bank Korea Open (Asian Tour)

Major championships

Wins (3)

Year	Championship	54 Holes	Winning Score	Margin	Runners Up
1998	PGA Championship	Tied for lead	-9 (70-66-67-68=271)	2 strokes	Steve Stricker
2000	The Masters	3 shot lead	-10 (72-67-70-69=278)	3 strokes	Ernie Els
2004	PGA Championship (2)	1 shot lead	-8 (67-68-69-76=280)	Playoff 1	Chris DiMarco, Justin Leonard

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

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.

Summary of major championship performances

• Starts - 62
• Wins - 3
• 2nd place finishes - 1
• Top 3 finishes - 5
• Top 5 finishes - 9
• Top 10 finishes - 22
• Longest streak of top-10s in majors - 7

Results in World Golf Championship events

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 November 9, 2008
There is a summary of Singh's European Tour career here

Team appearances

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

See 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

• Profile on PGA Tour's official site
• Profile on European Tour's official site
• Results for the last two years from the Official World Golf Rankings site
• Interview with the Observer