Steady Singh turns up the heat

For more years than he'd care to remember, or like, Vijay Singh has been in the shadow of Tiger Woods. He still is, but the Fijian's win on Sunday in the Buick Open - his fourth win of the season on the US Tour, emulating (guess who?) Woods - is perhaps a signal that his competitive drive is as strong as ever and that, when he does manage to get the putter working, he is as strong a force as there is to be found in golf.reports

Intriguingly, when Singh won the Buick Open a year ago, it was the catalyst for a remarkable end-of-season burst that eventually led to him wresting the world's number one position from Woods. Singh won five of his next seven tournaments, including the US PGA at Whistling Straits, a title he defends at Baltusrol next week.

"I feel I'm playing better than I did last year," remarked Singh, rather ominously. "I'm excited. I just hope I can follow what I did last year . . . it's going to be almost impossible (to repeat that feat), but I'm going to give it a shot. I feel good. I feel healthy. I'll just go out there and do it, that's the thing."

The vagaries of the world ranking system mean that, despite his latest win, which takes his number of wins on the US Tour to 28 - of which 16 have come since he turned 40, placing him just one behind the record haul held by Sam Snead - Singh, at number two, still trails Woods by a four-point average in the latest world rankings.

Tee-to-green, it's debatable if there is a better golfer on the planet than Singh. If he does have a weakness, it's his putting. After his win, Singh was asked if he felt he was better than everyone in the game when he putted well.

"I don't know that I'm better but, you know, I have a very good chance of winning golf tournaments when I putt well. That goes hand in hand with the way I play.

"You can putt it as good as you want (but) if you don't hit the ball well, you're not going to score well. I putted well and hit the ball very well. Put those two together, you can shoot low."

Yet, significantly, he led the putting averages in the Buick, thanks to a new putter that only went into his bag on the eve of the tournament.

"It just came alive," he remarked of his putting, although on Sunday - carrying a five-stroke lead into the final round - he wasn't aggressive, which was reflected in a finishing round of 70 for 24-under-par 264, which gave him a four-stroke victory over Woods and Zach Johnson.

"I wasn't aggressive," conceded Singh, "but I felt very much in control. It's tough to go out there with a five-shot lead. It's nice, but I'd rather have been out there and taken the golf course on . . . I try to play in the present and that is what I did."

Singh and Woods both take this week off - missing the International in Denver - to prepare for next week's US PGA, the final major of the season, where Ernie Els will be an absentee after knee surgery last week that will keep him out for up to six months.

"I'll just go out and hit shots," said Singh of his preparatory plans for the defence of the PGA title he won in a play-off in Whistling Straits a year ago.

"I'll not really practise on my long game, more on the short game. It's going to be 105 degrees in Florida every day so you cannot be spending that much time outside.

"I'll work on my putts again. I found some things I've done well and I'm going to try to work on those little things and just my key shots."

While Woods is still significantly ahead of him in the world rankings, Singh believes it is still possible to overtake his nemesis in the player-of-the-year race despite Woods having won two majors.

"Tiger's definitely the front runner . . . (but) there's a lot more tournaments to go and I'll probably have to win another five or six more like last year. It's too early to count right now."

Woods, meanwhile, has his sights set on the PGA after a year in the majors that has seen him win the US Masters and the British Open and finish second in the US Open.

"I've worked on a couple of things for the future and it's nice to have those things come together, not for all 72 holes, which was disappointing," said Woods, after a charge over the closing stretch enabled him to finish tied-second behind Singh.

"But I'm showing signs and that's very good. I have one more week at home (in Isleworth) to practise and be ready and I'll be rested. I've played well in the majors and hopefully the PGA will be the culmination of that."

With the four Irishmen - Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell - who are qualified for the US PGA staying away from tournament play again this week, the Irish in action at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles this week are Gary Murphy, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Stephen Browne and Philip Walton.

David Higgins (fourth reserve) and Michael Hoey (seventh reserve) are on a waiting list to get to get into the field.

Des Smyth remains on in the United States this week for the 3M Championship at the TPC of Twin Cities following on from his tied-ninth finish in the US Seniors Open, won by Allen Doyle.

Smyth collected $61,846 for his finish to take his earnings on the Champions Tour this season to $1,094,203, where he is currently in fourth place on the money list, while there are four Irish players - Denis O'Sullivan, Liam Higgins, Eamonn Darcy and John Curtis - in action in the PGA Seniors Championship on the European Seniors Tour at Carden Park.