The 62-year-old is rejoining the PGA Tour. Here is the law that empowered you

Vijay Singh has made 648 PGA Tour starts. That doesn’t detract from Mark Brooks, who set the record for 803 Tour appearances, but it’s still a ton of golf.

The start of Singh’s journey came while Bush 41 was still in office, in the 1992 Memorial, when a then-unknown 29-year-old from Fiji played a sponsor’s free and tied for 7th. Over the next decades and three decades, Singh put together a resume that elevated him to a place among the all-time greats: 34 wins, 28 runners-up, an incredible cut percentage of nearly 80% and – a generational wealth alert! – more than $71 million in school earnings, ranking 6th on the winning list behind Tiger, Rory, Scottie and the two gold-plated J’s (Justin Rose and Jim Furyk).

That ultimate honor comes with a sweet and, until this week, little-talked-about perk: a golden ticket back to the Tour. As determined in the Tour eligibility rules, players who lose Tour status but are among the top 50 all-time earners may regain full-season membership of their choice. The ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card.

This year, Singh, 62, is entering.

The 63-year-old golfer rejoining the world’s most competitive tour is not as extreme as, say, the thought of Michael Jordan (62) resigning with the Bulls or Roger Clemens (63) returning to the MLB scene, but it’s still a cause for retrospection, especially for the tour that has emerged.

But rules are rules and starting with the Sony Open in Honolulu next week, Singh will return to the Tour fairways for the first time (non-Masters division) since the 2021 Honda Classic, where he shot 74-73 and missed the cut. Singh’s last cut on Tour came at the 2020 Memorial, where he tied for 62. The last time he played 10 or more events in a season was in 2017-18.

Singh will have none of it carte blanche gaming rights; Scheduled events will be off limits. But a Tour spokesman said Singh was “likely to qualify for the majority of full-court events” in 2026. The spokesperson did not know how many of those contests Singh intends to enter.

Singh has dealt with injuries in recent years, particularly his balky back. In April, he withdrew from the Masters, citing an undisclosed injury, which made him 31 consecutive Masters. In 20 appearances on the PGA Tour Champions last year, he had 6 top 10 finishes and finished 23rd on the money list.

Singh is known for his tireless performance and long sprint times, and he still has pop; His average driving distance of 292.4 yards in 2025 ranks 16th on the Champions circuit. But there is a long time and then there is a long PGA Tour. That driving average would have ranked 164th on the PGA Tour in 2025, a few ticks above the likes of Lucas Glover and Russell Henley.

Singh knows what he is dealing with. A lot to say when he played in the 2019 Players Championship at the age of 57. “Playing a regular Tour is a lot of pressure, I think, to play well,” he said. “There is a lot of work needed to come out ready to play. I practice a lot when I play the regular Tour. The preparations are a little different.

“Playing the Champions tour, it’s very relaxing for me. When I first played there, I don’t want to come back here, like it’s so easy to play there, you get practice rounds in the cart and pro-am in the cart. Here, four full days, and two more days of playing and walking.”

News of Singh’s return to the junior tour, where he will be playing against opponents in his junior forties, has angered at least some members of Twitter’s golf nut gallery, who suspect that Singh, who is a picky eater, will take away valuable playing spots from more deserving or needy players. Singh faced similar criticism when he entered the Korn Ferry Tour event in 2020; the storm was so strong that he withdrew.

In response to Singh’s return in 2026, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said his beef isn’t so much with Singh as it is with the release itself. “This is what happens when you give up or give players too much power,” Chamblee wrote in X. “If the PGA Tour is going to say it’s a sport based on meritocracy, you can’t allow players to make money from their performance from a decade or decades ago, by using current exemptions. The sport must always answer the question: why are you here instead of me being good ten years ago?

Can Singh still be great? Very unlikely. Could he still cut? Of course. He did that at the 2024 Masters, where he opened 75-73 before a third-round 82 cost him. The oldest player to make the PGA Tour cut in a stroke play event is Sam Snead, age 67, who played over the weekend at the 1979 Westchester Classic. Jack Nicklaus and Fred Funk both made the PGA Tour cut at 64, while Tom Watson did so at 65. In the right way, on the right week, it’s not inconceivable that Singh could find himself within shouting distance of the lead.

If not, you will probably find him in the series.