Vijay Singh

At 61 years old, Vijay Singh has this physical status:

Vijay Singh, CF (born 22 February 1963), nicknamed "The Big Fijian," is an Indo-Fijian professional golfer.

On the PGA Tour, he has won 34 events, including three major championships (1999 and 2004).

In 2004, and 2005, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2006.Singh was ranked number one in the Official World Golf Ranking for 32 weeks.

Vijay was the 12th man to reach the world No. 1 list. 1-ranked and was the first foreign nation No. 1 at the time. In the 2000s, one in the United States stood out.

Singh was the top PGA Tour money winner in 2003, 2004, and 2008.

In 2008, he became the first winner of the FedEx Cup.

Personal life

Singh, an Indo-Fijian practising Hinduism, was born in Lautoka, Fiji, and grew up in Nadi. He is a resident of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and is known for his meticulous planning, arriving hours before, and staying long after his tournament rounds to work on his game on the driving range and putting greens.

Singh has a brother named Krishna, who is also a professional golfer.

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Career history

Singh recalled his childhood: "We couldn't afford golf balls as children, so we had to make do with coconuts." My dad used to say, 'Young Vijay, golf balls don't fall off trees you know,' so I discovered some that did." He played snooker, cricket, football, soccer, and football, as well as rugby, the island's most popular sport. He is the uncle of Mohan Singh, an air technician who also taught golf. He adored Tom Weiskopf's swing as a child, using it as a precursor to his own.

Singh won the 1984 Malaysian PGA Championship, two years after turning pro. However, his career was doomed to fail after he was barred from the Asia Golf Circuit in 1985 due to allegations that he doctored his scorecard. Singh was accused of lowering his score from one over to one under in order to make the cut, but Singh denies this, saying that this should have resulted in disqualification rather than a ban. After the Tour's investigation into these and other suspected misconduct continued, John Bender, the Asian PGA Tour president, decided against a lifetime ban on Asian PGA Tour play.

Singh felt he had been harsher on him because the marker was "the son of a VIP in the Indonesian PGA." He spent time at the Keningau Club in Sabah, Malaysia, before moving to the Miri Golf Club in Sarawak. Though this was a time of struggle for him, he continued to gain experience. He saved the money he needed to restart his career and entered re-enter tournaments. Red Baron, a sponsor, went to Africa to compete on the now-defunct Safari Circuit, where he greeted him vociferously. For the second year in a row, he attended the European Tour Qualifying Academy, and was a success on this occasion.

Singh captured his first European Tour title in 1989 and ended 24th on the European Tour Order of Merit, putting his early struggles behind him. He claimed four times in 1989 at the Volvo Open di Firenze, Ivory Coast Open, Nigerian Open, and Zimbabwe Open. At The Open Championship, he was also ranked 23rd. He won the European Tour for the second time in 1990 and has done so twice in 1992. During this time, he has also won several tournaments in Asia and Africa.

Singh won his first PGA Tour event, the Buick Classic in a playoff over Mark Wiebe in 1993. He was named the 1993 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year after his triumph. After being plagued with back and neck pains in 1994, he returned to win the Buick Classic in 1995 and the Phoenix Open. He won both the Memorial Tournament and the Buick Open in 1997 after playing well in 1996 (but with no victories).

Singh was crowned king of the PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington, in 1998, defeating the 66-68 to a course record) and winning his first Major title. He finished The Masters in 2000 by defeating Ernie Els in a three-stroke victory.

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

Singh's 2003 had a fruitful year. Singh won four tournaments, had 18 top-10 finishes, and was the PGA Tour's money leader (and had the second-most single-season total in PGA Tour history) with $7,597, defeating Tiger Woods by $900,494, though Singh played 27 tournaments in comparison to Woods' 18 tournaments. Singh also set a new record at the U.S. Open with a 29 on the back nine of his second round. At the Walt Disney World Resort in Phoenix, he won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, the John Deere Classic, and the FUNAI Classic. Tiger Woods barely missed out on the PGA of America's Player of the Year award.

However, Singh's 2003 season was also marred by controversies surrounding the year's celebration at the Bank of America Colonial. Annika Sörenstam of LPGA became the first woman to attend a PGA Tour event since Babe Zaharias at the 1945 Los Angeles Open. Singh was misquoted as having said that Sörenstam "didn't belong" on the men's tour and that he would not participate if paired with her. He claimed that he would not be paired with her because his playing partner was chosen from the previous champion's pool. "There are guys out there trying to make a living," Singh said later. This isn't a ladies' tour. If she wants to play, she should—or any other woman for that matter—if they want to participate in the man's tour, they should register and play like everybody else."

Singh began winning $954,000 in prize money in 2004 after winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at 16. This was his first victory on tour in 2004 and his 16th on the PGA Tour all-time. It was his 12th top-ten finish in a row, but it was two shy of Jack Nicklaus' all-time record.

Singh won the PGA Championship in his third major title, defeating Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco in a three-hole aggregate playoff. Singh led Leonard by a single shot going into the final round, but he missed no birdies in the final round, according to a finishing rule at 67-69-76=280. His final round of 76 was the highest winning score by a major champion since 1955. The playoffs were tense, with Singh's birdie on the first playoff hole, his first birdie of the day, proving the difference.

Singh captured the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Massachusetts, on September 6, 2004 (Labor Day). With the victory, Woods defeated Tiger Woods at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking, snaping Woods' streak of 264 weeks at the top of the golf world.

Singh won his first nine titles, 18 top-10s, and a record $10,905,166 in earnings during his career, earning him the PGA Tour's and PGA of America's Player of the Year award for 2004. A vote of current PGA Tour players determines the former champion.

Singh started winning the Ford Championship at Doral early in 2005, but just two weeks later, he returned to top-three finishes in three weeks. Singh fell one of the top world No. 1 following Woods' victory at the 2005 Masters. In the Official World Golf Rankings, 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings is ranked No. 1 and tied for fifth place. He was the youngest living person elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in April, winning 56% of the vote. Karrie Webb, thirty-year-old, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in October 2005, but Singh remained the youngest living electee as a result of the voting process. (Tom Morris, Jr., a 19th-century great who was elected in 1975, died at the age of 24.) Singh deferred his induction for a year, but it happened in October 2006.

Singh wrote enough European Tour events in 2006 to be on the European Tour Order of Merit for the first time since 1995.

Singh won the Mercedes-Benz Championship, the first FedEx Cup event in PGA Tour history, at the start of the 2007 season. Singh won his 18th tour victory over the age of 40, beating Sam Snead for the most over 40 wins and making him the first over 40 tour winner on record. In March, he won again at The Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, but did not win for the remainder of the year, putting an end to Singh's poor year. For the first time in ten years, he did not finish in the top ten of a major and finished 10th in the FedEx Cup tournament. During the 2007, he went through swing changes that culminated in weeks of missed paychecks and remaining outside the top ten through the Presidents Cup.

Singh made dramatic leaps in 2008, but he had good opportunities at Pebble Beach and Bay Hill, but not at a high rate in the first half of the year. Poor putting was a recurring feature in his game for the better part of two years, but his season came to an end with a tie for fifth in the Travelers Championship. Singh won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in early August for his first victory of the year and first World Golf Championship, despite missing the cut at The Open Championship. After missing short putts all week, his victory had been a relief. He missed the cut the following two weeks, most notably in Oakland Hills for the PGA Championship and the PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs, ranked 7th in the standings. Singh won his first FedEx Cup victory over Sergio Garca and Kevin Sutherland in a playoff, beating him in a playoff. On the first playoff hole, Garce and Singh met long birdie putts before Singh defeated Singh with birdie on the second playoff hole. Singh was pushed into first place in the FedEx Cup with three events remaining. He triumphed once more in the second round of the playoffs, this time with a five strokes victory and a final round 63. In his last five starts, he had won three times in his last five starts and had a nearly unbeaten lead in the points race. Singh would not qualify in the remaining two events, but he did excel in both, but Singh did not qualify in the 2008 FedEx Cup championships. Singh's season, which seemed to be a big disappointment in July, turned into a spectacular year for him: he won the PGA Tour money list for the third time in his career, and he defeated Harry Cooper for the most PGA Tour victories for a non-American.

Singh has won 22 times on the PGA Tour since turning 40, beating the record set by Sam Snead. After Tiger Woods, he is the second man to reach $60 million in PGA Tour career earnings. His 34 career victories are the most on the PGA Tour by a non-American player, placing him 14th on the all-time list. He has been ranked in the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings for more than 540 weeks. Singh's enduring on the PGA Tour and his numerous victories have earned him a lifetime exemption from the PGA Tour.

Kenny Perry, another celebrity who made it to a late age, is a good friend of Singh, who affectionately refers to him as "Biggie." Perry said, "Vijay has always been kind to me." We're talking a lot. He needs to know how my family is doing. I think he is the world's best friend."

Singh has withdrew from a few Asian Tour events due to a nagging back injury, and doctors have advised people to rest. He was out of two and a half months before winning the Chevron World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club in California in December. It was his first victory in the event. During the 2009 season, Singh revealed that he would miss three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. Singh had a bad 2009, with no top-five finishes and finished the year with his lowest ever ranking on the PGA Tour money list in 68th.

His poor form continued into 2010 and he ended up ranking 66th on the PGA Tour money list. For the first time since the 1990s, he fell out of the top 50 in the world rankings.

Singh made five out of his first five cuts in 2011 after recovering from knee surgery. Singh was in contention for his first PGA Tour title since 2008 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona, in February. Despite shooting a final round 66, Singh took two shots behind Jason Dufner and eventual winner Mark Wilson. Singh was back in contention a few weeks after, this time at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club, this time at the Northern Trust Open. However, he fell short again on holes 12 and 13, and he wasn't helped by back-to-back bogeys on holes 12 and 13. He would eventually finish two shots behind winner Aaron Baddeley, but he did manage to claim a second spot on his own. However, this early season form was not strong enough to guarantee a spot in the inaugural World Golf Championship of the year, the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship the following week. However, at number ten in the 2011 FedEx Cup standings, it was just enough to guarantee a spot at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March.

Singh's tee-time in U.S. Open qualifying in Columbus, Ohio, fell on 6 June 2011. At 67, this was the longest active streak of consecutive majors played by a professional golfer.

Singh confessed to using deer-antler spray unaware that it was a banned drug on January 30. He was later dismissed by the PGA Tour as a result of the lawsuit. During a 12-week probe into Singh's use of deer-antler spray, he sued the PGA Tour for exposing him to public humiliation and ridicule. The PGA Tour and Singh announced on November 20 that the case had been settled on November 20, 2018. Singh does not appear to have intended to gain an unfair advantage over his coworkers in this situation, according to the PGA Tour. Other terms of the deal were not announced.

In 2016, he came in second place at the Quicken Loan National, three strokes behind winner Billy Hurley III.

Singh shot his way into the final group of the Honda Classic in March 2019. Singh finished sixth, three strokes behind champion Keith Mitchell, who came in fourth. He nearly became the oldest champion of PGA Tour history at 56 years old.

Singh was fourth in his first PGA Tour Champions tournament in 2013, finishing T6 at the Pacific Links Hawai'i Championship in 2013.

Singh took the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf on April 23, 2017, alongside Carlos Franco.

Singh was named the Toshiba Classic on March 11, 2018.

Singh defeated Jeff Maggert in a playoff over him on July 15, 2018 in one of the PGA Tour Champions' major tournaments.

Singh defeated the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 11, 2018. The victory was worth $440,000. He also finished fourth in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup, receiving an additional $200,000.

PGA Tour career summary

As of the 2020 season, here are some highlights from the. Singh's European Tour experience is chronicled here.

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