Golf Tour news:Simply the best? Like a fine wine, Vijay Singh appears to mature with age. And the world's number one picked up where he left off last season by capturing the 25th win of his career on the US Tour when taking the Sony Open in Hawaii on Sunday.
Incredibly, it took the Fijian a full decade playing in America to accumulate his first 11 titles but, in the past three seasons, he has added a further 14 in a period when he has overtaken Tiger Woods as the game's best player.
Indeed, since turning 40, Singh has achieved 13 wins which is the second most in US Tour history, only bettered by Sam Snead's 17. But given the 42-year-old's current form, who'd bet against him adding significantly to that total.
In fending off a final-round charge from Ernie Els - who shot a course record-equalling 62, but who later admitted: "I always felt like it was going to be a little shy" - Singh finished with a 65 for 11-under-par total of 269.
The winner's cheque for $864,000 (€659,492) brought Singh's career winnings to over $37 million (€28.2 million), a total only bettered by Woods who has won $45,492,737 (€34.7 million).
As if to underline his consistency, Singh's victory was the eighth consecutive top-10 dating back to last season and ensures he has won at least once on the US Tour for each of the last four seasons.
As if to further underline his superiority in that time span, Singh has had 14 wins in the last three seasons (2003-'05), while the next closest are Woods (with six) and Els (with five).
Strangely enough, Singh observed afterwards that the win takes away some of the heat for the season ahead.
He explained: "It takes a lot of pressure off me. Everybody thinks, 'Is he going to win again? Is he going to win again?' I missed an opportunity last week (in the Mercedes Championship, when he suffered a triple bogey in his final round to finish tied-eighth having led for three rounds), that could actually work against me if I do that.
"I think this is going to help. This is a great relief that, you know, I can start breathing again and go and play more comfortable for the rest of the season. I'm looking forward to the rest of it. I think I'm going to. I've calmed down now after last week and this is what I needed. "
Singh, who has moved to the top of the US Tour money list, took only a short amount of time off in the close season. "Even during that time off, I still practised a lot and I was working on things that I thought I needed to fix and I felt very comfortable. I'm just looking forward to the rest of the season.
"I know this week (the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines) is going to be a big field and that golf course has not been the best for me . . . but I'm going to go out there and fix that."
So, how much pressure does Singh put on himself going into a tournament? "I don't think that I'm putting any pressure on myself. I think the pressure I've got to put on is how I'm going to perform. I want to go out there and win golf tournaments, and like this is a relief now that I've already won one (in 2005). I can relax and go out and play. If I had not won one, like I let one go last week, I would be tensing up as the weeks go by not winning one. But this is a big load off my back, and I can go and relax and play.
"(After the Mercedes), I was pretty upset for two or three days, because . . . all I needed to do was shoot, you know, two or three-under there and I would have won. Shooting over par on the last day on a golf course that was yielding a lot of birdies, I was pretty disappointed.
"You know, one hole, that's what cost me, and that's the thing I had to work on. It wasn't the way I finished, it's the way I drove the ball there and that was the key factor. Using a new driver coming into the season and hitting a bad shot with that, I didn't want that to be a factor for the rest of the season, so I needed to fix that.
"I did fix the driver and it worked this week. This was a good week to try a new driver because it's (got) tight driving holes and most of the holes were crosswind. Yeah, I was pretty upset (after the Mercedes), but you know, it kind of worked out."
Singh is anxious to keep his consistent streak going and, this week, competes in the Buick Invitational where John Daly will be defending his title in the $4.5 million tournament and Phil Mickelson will make his seasonal debut.
His win in the Sony was Singh's seventh win in his last 11 starts on the US Tour (dating back to last season when he finished as leading money winner with nine wins, including the US PGA, during the year) - but the Buick, where two different courses are used, has not been particularly kind to the Fijian during his career where the poa annua greens have caused him problems in the past.
On the PGA European Tour, Darren Clarke returns to competition in the South African Airways Open at Durban where he is one of four Irish players - along with Philip Walton, Gary Murphy and Stephen Browne - in the field. Clarke intends donating any prize-money won to the Asian Tsunami disaster fund. The tournament carries a top prize of €112,689.
HonoluluScores:
(USA unless stated, par 70)
269 - V Singh (Fij) 69 68 67 65.
270 - E Els (Rsa) 71 67 70 62.
271 - C Howell III 70 70 64 67, S Maruyama (Jpn) 67 65 68 71.
272 - S Cink 66 69 72 65, B Quigley 66 67 68 71.
273 - A Magee 67 68 71 67, T Armour III 69 71 67 66.
274 - R Gamez 69 66 68 71, C Stadler 71 69 67 67, TLehman 67 68 70 69, B Bryant 70 69 66 69.
275 - S Micheel 70 68 68 69, D Toms 71 68 68 68, J Maggert 70 68 68 69, L Donald (Eng) 74 67 65 69.
276 - T Herron 68 72 71 65, P Azinger 67 68 67 74, J Allred 69 68 70 69.
277 - P Perez 71 70 66 70, J Kaye 67 71 71 68, T Byrum 66 71 73 67, J Rose (Eng) 67 66 72 72, L Roberts 70 70 69 68, J Durant 69 72 69 67, L Mize 70 69 64 74, A Scott (Aus) 71 65 69 72.
278 - C Parry (Aus) 69 70 70 69, R Palmer 69 70 70 69, A Oberholser 71 69 69 69, J Sluman 67 68 73 70, P Jacobsen 72 68 70 68.
279 - J Bohn 71 70 69 69, B Gay 71 70 71 67, B Geiberger 68 71 70 70, C Riley 71 71 68 69, J Furyk 71 69 72 67.
280 - F Langham 71 68 70 71, H Slocum 72 70 69 69, R Beem 70 69 74 67, S Murphy 70 72 70 68.
281 - R Sabbatini (Rsa) 72 70 66 73, D Trahan 70 67 73 71, B Estes 71 69 72 69, T Pernice Jr 69 72 70 70, B Baird 68 71 73 69.
282 - D Mast 74 64 69 75, B Mayfair 71 71 71 69, W Austin 67 71 73 71, C Campbell 67 71 73 71, J Riegger 72 68 73 69, B Crane 71 70 73 68, S Allan (Aus) 75 67 68 72, Z Johnson 76 65 70 71, T Hamilton 69 71 71 71.
283 - R Goosen (Rsa) 72 70 72 69, J Byrd 73 69 69 72, S Jones (Eng) 73 69 74 67, D Chopra (Swe) 73 69 69 72, D Brigman 73 69 71 70, S Flesch 73 69 69 72, G Owen (Eng) 69 73 71 70, R Rashell 73 67 74 69.
284 - O Uresti 70 72 70 72, H Kuehne 66 73 72 73, J Parnevik (Swe) 72 69 71 72, D Points 71 70 71 72, D Waldorf 74 68 75 67
285 - R Imada (Jpn) 73 69 68 75, J Cook 72 68 71 74, N Watney 70 70 71 74.
286 - J Snyder III 71 71 74 70, T Kite 71 71 69 75, S O'Hair 69 71 73 73, C Warren 74 68 76 68.
288 - D Wilson 69 70 72 77.
289 - G Meyer 71 70 74 74.
293 - P Gow (Aus) 70 68 76 79.
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