Singh targets return to top form
Winning well over €5.9m in a year would satisfy most people – but not Vijay Singh.
The loss of the world number one spot and the US Tour money list title, both to Tiger Woods, and a failure to add to his three majors prompted the 42-year-old Fijian to take a long, hard look at himself recently.
And he did not like all that he saw.
“I got very complacent,” said Singh today on the eve of the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, where Woods and European stars Colin Montgomerie, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley are among the opposition in the 75-strong field.
“I kind of slowed down with the way I was practising and the way I was working out. There were a lot of distractions as well and my mind wasn’t as free as last year or the beginning of this year where I could just go out there, play golf and not worry about anything.
“There were a lot more obligations and they got in the way. You do one, then you’ve got to do another and at the end of the week you haven’t done your normal routine of work.
“If you keep doing that week-in, week-out, at the end of two or three months you get behind.
“I was just one-track mind last year and nothing was going to interfere between me and my golf, but somewhere along the way I lost my way.
“I’ve learned from it and I’ve re-energised myself. If you want to play your best you have to focus on what you’re doing.
“I started working out again two or three weeks ago and I’m going to start off next season as strong as I’ve ever been. That’s what I’m targeting myself for.
“I missed playing well. I missed winning golf tournaments (his last victory was in July) and I want to start doing that again.
“I’m trying to build up my endurance and trying to make sure that my swing is back to the way it was three years ago.
“If you don’t go to the gym one day you feel OK. Then you don’t do it again and you feel even better. By the end of the week you feel great, but then you pay the penalty for not being fit when you go on the course.
“It was my trainer’s doing as well. He’s been telling me I needed to pick it up, otherwise you just slide down the hill.
“It’s so much easier to slide than take one step up and I just don’t want to slide any further than where I am right now.”
While world number two Singh feels he has slipped, of course, Woods has come roaring back to prominence after not an indifferent 2004.
Singh still finished in the top 10 of all four majors this season, but fifth, sixth, fifth and 10th does not compare to first, second, first and fourth.
“Tiger does play as good as quite a few guys sometimes, but he manages to get around and scores better than anybody else out there,” said Singh.
“He is really focused. I am sure a lot of guys have looked at Tiger’s performance and said ’you’ve got to catch up’, but I assess my game according to how I play and how I perform.”
Singh has decided then to change the way things have been the last few months, but US Open champion Michael Campbell is happy to stay the way he is.
And that includes remaining a member of the European tour, where he lost out to Montgomerie in the Order of Merit race.
“The hardest thing for us, being human in this golfing world, is stop searching,” said the New Zealander, also in China for what is also the opening event of the new European circuit.
“When you find the right formula or recipe we still search for the X-factor or the secret, but now I’m trying to tell myself ’stop searching – you’ve found it.’
“I made a lot of changes earlier this year, but if I just keep the same routine and processes going hopefully next year will be better than this year.
“Getting off to a good start this week will put me in good sted for next year’s Order of Merit.”
Winning would also mean a HSBC double for him worth nearly €2.2m, having taken the match play crown at Wentworth in September.
