Vijay Singh is in the midst of one of the best seasons in PGA Tour history. If you have not been watching golf this season, let me offer a quick recap. Singh, through the Bell Canadian Open this past weekend, has seven victories including the PGA Championship. He has officially usurped the world number one ranking from Tiger Woods, at his own tournament, nonetheless.
Vijay controls the money list by more than $3 million over his nearest competitor. He is less than a half-million dollars away from the all-time single season money lead. The nearly $9 million he has accrued on the season, over 25 starts, averages out to a very efficient $360,000 per start. On top of all that, he is obviously the lone candidate on the ballot for the Player of the Year award he was perhaps snubbed out of last year.
Singh is 41-years-old now. How is it possible that at that advanced stage of his career, he could enter the pinnacle of an already excellent career? Forty-one is not quite old by golfing standards, but it is well outside of the accepted age range in which a player reaches his peak.
While Jay Haas is extraordinary at age 50 in making the Ryder Cup team and his very consistent play, Singh's rise is even more remarkable. Singh is by far the hardest worker on the PGA Tour, slinging ball after ball before and after rounds. The countless hours of practice with blisters and bloody hands have paid off with an innumerable list of highlight reel approaches, including his PGA sealing birdie on the first playoff hole. Despite honing his amazing ball striking consistency, the most impressive change in Singh's game is his excellent putting stroke.
It's difficult to see the improvement from the statistics, which are very misleading on the PGA Tour. But, week-to-week, Singh demonstrates in front of millions in person and on television that he has. A perfect example was the 71st hole at the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks ago. Singh was staring down a windy 20-foot putt for birdie with the then number one just six feet away for a three that would slim the gap. Rather than playing safe and coasting to a par, Singh decided to capture his destiny by draining the very difficult roll.
And for as many noticeable changes Singh's game has undergone in the past two seasons, Singh is seemingly more comfortable in his role as a superstar in the game. As the chase for number one has gone on, Singh has been much more kind to the media and his growing fan base. While he still may not be any different as a man in his private life, that largely unknown element of his life has no bearing on his ability to serve as an ambassador for the game.
Someone at the Tour must have pulled him aside, or Vijay has recognized the visibility of being the world number one on his own. Either way, in his current form, he is a much more likeable number one than the Singh of five years ago.
The total transformation that has helped to shape Singh's rise to the top of the golfing world is symbolic of the larger changes taking place in the game. No longer is the sport dominated by a single man that transcends the game, into popular culture. The world number one no longer is a man that has just as many photo shoots as he does tournaments in his day planner. The world number one golfer is a man that has one thing on his mind, and that is maintaining what he worked for so long.
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