Singh out to make point
Vijay Singh, who this time last year was battling with Tiger Woods for the world number one spot, is out to prove that at 43 he is not yet a fading force.
Singh is still second in the rankings, but now a distant second and he goes into this week’s Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando without a victory in almost eight months.
Woods, on the other hand, will be looking for his fourth title of the season when he tees off on Thursday against a field that also includes Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke.
Singh finished nine shots behind winner Woods at the Ford Championship in Miami a fortnight ago – their only clash so far this year – and hinted he might not line up this week.
“Bay Hill is a good tournament, but I need to fix a few things first. If I’m not ready, I won’t play,” declared the Fijian.
He has decided he is, though, and so returns to an event in which he was joint second with Graeme McDowell last year, two behind Kenny Perry.
Neither Perry nor McDowell are present now – and they will not be at the Masters in three weeks’ time either.
Perry underwent knee surgery on Monday, while Northern Irishman McDowell’s performance 12 months ago did not earn him a start this week or at next week’s Players Championship and so he cannot climb back into the world’s top 50 in time for Augusta.
Singh began the year by getting into a play-off with Stuart Appleby at the Mercedes Championship and finishing sixth in the Sony Open, but then travelled to two European Tour events in the Middle East – something he now considers to have been a mistake.
“It was a real bad move,” he said. “The first week is just getting used to it and you come back over here, you do the same thing.
“It was a good trip, but it was very tiring on my body and I think I wasted three weeks.”
Singh tied for eighth in Abu Dhabi Golf Championship and shared 24th place at the Qatar Masters.
Since returning to the States he has been 20th, seventh, ninth and 15th – not awful, but not what he wanted.
Montgomerie is one who would love to have that list of finishes against his name so far this year.
But instead he is trying to avoid a third successive missed cut in a run of tournaments that also saw him make a second-round exit – and play badly – in the Accenture World Match Play in California.
Nick Faldo, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Brian Davis, Greg Owen and Paul Lawrie also tee it up this week. For 1999 Open champion Lawrie it is his first event in America since the 2004 US Open.
