Vijay Singh, 62, has proved he’s fit for the PGA Tour (again)

The most interesting result of the first week in the new PGA Tour season came from a non-contentious golfer: Vijay Singh’s tie for 40th place at the Sony Open in Honolulu – at age 62. He didn’t have enough game to place in the top 10 last week and he probably doesn’t have enough game to get into any PGA Tour event, not just any PGA Tour event. That won’t stop him from trying. The opposite of that.

Singh is a man of will. He is a testament to the benefits of endless dedication to the craft. More than any other golfer this side of Ben Hogan and perhaps including Ben Hogan, Singh turned practice sessions into public displays of reflection and rationality. Not that Singh would ever use such words. If Singh had to choose between “showing up” and “being a ball,” he’d go with btb.

But what Singh really did, all these years, was hit a lot of balls that he was able to play with something approaching.Underneathness. That is, cutting your evolving thoughts from a manageable number (one) to the grail of all grails (nothing). A swing without thoughts, a language, nothing but a swing whoosh. Dustin Johnson, at the height of his powers in 2018, was once asked what he thinks during a game, what his mind is doing. He said, “That’s a good question because I don’t know anything. I hope it doesn’t really do anything. When I hit it, I don’t really think anything.” For Singh, practice sessions are a time to make swinging natural, like walking, breathing, being.

Over the years, if you went to Tour events and major events, you might see Singh’s ex-wife, his ex-girlfriend, his son and various players watching parts of his marathon distance times as they went from one to two to three hours. (His players, and there have been many, have been required to testify to the whole thing.) Singh owns a year-round patch of grass that he says he has squatter rights to behind the TPC Sawgrass course, not far from his home in South Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Once he almost got there another player (his friend Roccoed Mediate in it). Singh’s self-control can be remarkable. And it is his greatest strength. It should also be noted, at times and over the years, that Singh has befriended players who almost never had the chance to keep their travel cards but who were almost his dedication game. He practiced alongside such players, and played practice rounds with them.

No non-American player has won more on the PGA Tour than Singh, who has 34 Tour wins. Rory McIlroy has 29. Gary Player has 24. He grew up in a working class family in Fiji. He struggled every step of the way as a young professional. He was banned from the Asian Tour in 1985 for cheating. Singh has always denied the allegations, but it seems that he values ​​his professional life. He avoids talking to reporters if he can, he’s often curmudgeonly or crazy, and his marathon distance times, knowing his history, look like a golf course offering. They seem sacred, important, important. It’s not like you’re filling time. At the age of 23, Singh was working as a club technician and footballer. At the age of 43, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. No other Hall of Famers played last week in Hawaii.

He earned $31,522 there, bringing his lifetime Tour haul to $71,312,738, which ranks him eighth on the all-time PGA Tour money list. Given that Singh hasn’t played on Tour full-time in over a decade, and that he was 30 years old during his rookie season, that’s an incredible feat. Yes, he caught all the years that Tiger money flowed into the game, but not a cent of the ridiculous LIV-inspired money. Maybe they will be in his future. It is unclear how many Tour events he will play this year. Educated guesses abound. What will make him feel more alive than trying to beat a group of the best players in the world? Singh is a golfer, full stop.

He could easily pass the player ahead of him on the career money list, Jim Furyk, before the year is out, as Singh used the exemption once as one of the top 50 earners to play regularly this year. That release doesn’t get Singh into small-field signature events and invitationals, but it does get him into everything else. In theory, he could play his way into the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Those events are played at courses where he can get out of the top 10. He usually plays well at Bay Hill and won right away.

Singh is already in this year’s Masters, thanks to his win there in 2000. Yes, there were tournaments in 2000 won by players other than Tiger Woods. There were a few players who posed a serious threat to Woods’ rise, most notably Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson. No player was better equipped to handle the heat Woods generated than Singh.

In a 10-year period, from the beginning of 2000 until the end of 2009, the player ranked No. Woods, Singh; Woods, Singh; Woods, Singh; Woods, Singh; Woods. Woods’ reign was long, but those were the only top two names on the official Golf World Ranking that decade. When Singh won at Bay Hill in 2007, Woods made a Sunday nine. “I wasn’t too worried,” said Singh triumphantly. Woods finished that Sunday.

To anyone who thinks the 62-year-old Hall of Famer shouldn’t be taking a spot on the PGA Tour that could go to a much younger and needier player, I say this: He’ll turn 63 before the Tour reaches Florida. You have absolutely earned the right to play the Tour. He takes no place from anyone. He claims the land that belongs to him, that he has earned. The Tour has a rule that allows him to play, and he’s taking advantage.

In 2005, Tom Kite, at age 55, used the same rule with the goal of playing a full season. He played 12 events and made only three finals. Ironically, in one of those events, the old Kemper Open played at Congressional outside of Washington DC, Kite tied for the lead for three rounds, and then it was a bad Sunday. Kite was trying to do what Singh is trying to do, what many people around the world are trying to do: reduce time. Singh will have the potential to achieve more than Kite did over 20 years ago. Is it a case of elder abuse that Singh is doing what he is doing? Yes, of course. Singh knows that the best chance he has to improve his game is to play with the best players in the world.

When Padraig Harrington won the US Senior Open in 2022, he won by a shot over Steve Stricker. Harrington’s four-day total was 274, 10 under par. When it was over, I asked Harrington what the goal would have been if the stadium had the best players in the world instead of the best players in the world. “It was going to be low, but I was going to shoot low,” he said. It was such a telling answer.

It is difficult for reporters to contact Singh. When I first met him, I was a caddy and 35 years ago he sometimes put up with me because he thought of me as more of a caddy than a reporter, but I’m not kidding myself here. In the fall of 2024, I found myself at a senior retreat party within driving distance of Pebble Beach with Singh present. I’ve typed this bit before but now seems like a good place to vent.

“Vijay, can I ask you just one question?” I asked.

“Not now,” he said in his usual dismissive manner.

Not now his direct answer to any question.

“Vijay, if not now, when?”

He nodded slowly.

I talked about the evening session on the distance I had seen at Carnoustie two months ago, at the British Senior Open. He stayed for two hours if not more. I asked him what he was working on. He was hitting driver after driver after driver. He answered quickly.

“My change,” he said.

I, of course, do not know whether he was referring to that particular session or, and possibly, to any session. (I’m sure he was trying to get rid of me, too.) Anyway, some reply: change. The swinging thought of one driving word. If you don’t complete the retreat, you can’t do the descent.

I think the trick to Vijay’s golf life is from the range, where you hit it right in the face with the benefit of one swing thought, and then really play golf, golf on the golf course, and not think about anything at all. Playing golf with the joy of an empty mind but also with total intention, total dedication. Maybe it won’t be done but the boy can go to his maker and try.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com.