Vijay Singh thread

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Re: Vijay Singh

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Vijay Singh had won only one PGA Tour tournament in his last 35 starts, but he was focused and in the zone as he won the 2007 PGA Tour season opener, the Mercedes Championship, in Hawaii today. 

A consensus “hardest working golfer on the Tour, appeared to be losing his golf expertise in 2006 when he won once, but the forty-three-old golfer worked hard and corrected his faults in the off-season and returned strong in 2007.
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Re: Vijay Singh

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Vijay Singh’s work ethics is legendary and something that Indian sports stars and forty-plus-year-old weekend warriors can emulate in their own small or big way.

Vijay, who turns 44-years-old on February 22, 2007, had a sub-par year on the PGA Tour in 2006 per his lofty standards (he won only one PGA tournament in 2006) and went from #1 in the world to #7, and could have taken it easy and coasted for the next few years on the Tour making a couple of million dollars each year; however, he did not want to rest on his laurels.  He pushed himself hard in the off-season hitting golf balls on the range for approximately five hours daily and worked out twice a day in the gym with his trainer Joey Diovisalvi.

The result…

He looked focused and stronger on the golf course and led the field on all four days to win the season-opener Mercedes Championship.  Unlike last year when he had trouble holding on to the lead or winning championships, he never showed signs of weakness or uncertainty.  I watched the Mercedes Championship on TV on Sunday and once he made birdies on the first two holes, his body language showed that he was not going to let anyone beat him.  He played smart, but did not play conservatively to keep the ball safely on the fairways or the greens, and won his 18th PGA title - a new record - since turning forty-years of age. 

His quote from the PGA website (link below) said it all, "I wanted this win, and I practiced hard for it. It's a good offseason for me. I worked hard and it paid off."

Sachin Tendulkar is a little over eleven years younger than Vijay Singh; both are multimillionaires and have access to facilities to get themselves into match-fit physical and mental shape, yet one talks about his body getting old while the other says "life doesn't stop at 40. It just begins, I guess." 

The cynics may argue that cricket is a lot more physical game than golf and the latter sport is often considered to be an old man’s game, but golf swings take a toll on the backs, knees, shoulders and wrists of elite golfers.  Tiger Woods underwent surgery on his knee and Jim Furyk had his wrist surgically repaired, yet they came back stronger after their surgeries because of the time spent in the gym.  It appears that Tendulkar and some of his many fans and some Indian media people make excuses about the shoulder surgery and advancing age for his lack of productivity on the cricket field; however, Tendulkar is no longer in the same league as a player as his contemporaries Brian Lara, Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting.  Come to think of it, Tendulkar can take some lessons from Vijay Singh and Saurav Ganguly to get in shape both physically and mentally to get better.

As for the weekend warriors such as me, I have been hitting the gym regularly once again for the past three weeks and will be in a lot better shape in a few months.  If Vijay Singh can work out in the gym twice a day, I can be a gym nut five times a week. 

There are lessons to be learned from Vijay Singh, and Indian sports stars and sports fans can benefit if we make use of them.  :D

Victory shows that Singh is in control of his game and his life
Last edited by BSharma on Mon Jan 08, 2007 10:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Vijay Singh

Post by Kumar »

Article by Van Sickle on VJ's victory,


http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news;_ ... &type=lgns

Singh's strenght is his desire
http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?s ... &type=lgns

Everyone says that VJ is back.. but I beg to differ  :devil:. He lead the putting last week and won.. Do any of us seriously expect him to do that over the course of one full year. What do you think guys?
Last edited by Kumar on Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Vijay Singh

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Kumar wrote: Everyone says that VJ is back.. but I beg to differ  :devil:. He lead the putting last week and won.. Do any of us seriously expect him to do that over the course of one full year. What do you think guys?
The next few months will tell us if Vijay is back or not, but I saw him play on Saturday and then again on Sunday at the Mercedes Championship and I could tell that he is a different player than last year.  I felt pretty sure after watching him on Saturday that he would win on Sunday.  He used to be somewhat hesistant with his drivers last year and he had confidence in swinging them last week.  He did not take the easy way out when he got a six stroke lead on Sunday and his body language showed no fear when Adam Scott started closing the gap. 

He won the Mercedes Championship mainly because his putter was hot (I think his putting was second best amongst all competitors), but his alround game was clicking as well.

Tiger Woods with his form of second half of 2006 is not catchable by any golfer, and it is to be seen if Tiger can sustain that form in 2007.
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Re: Vijay Singh

Post by PKBasu »

Great to see Vijay back in fine form, and Thanks Bhushan for giving thus those insights into how he regained his form and fitness.
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Re: Vijay Singh

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"Everyone says that VJ is back.. but I beg to differ  . He lead the putting last week and won.. "

Yes, Vijay has to putt well to win.  However, the number of putts to win stat. is deceptive.  When Vijay is playing well, he also hits much closer to the pin than most golfers -- so the least number of putts is often the result of good approach work rather than great putting per se.  That said, the putts have to drop for any golfer to win -- good play will generally ensure that you are in contention.
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Re: Vijay Singh

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Vijay Singh became the first golfer in 2007 to win multiple tournaments on the 2007 PGA Tour when he won the prestigious tournament - Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Invitational.  This is Vijay's 19th PGA title since turning 40 years old - the same as Davis Love III, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite won in their entire careers. This was his 31st career victory on the PGA Tour and it tied him with Harry "Lighthorse" Cooper for most victories by foreign-born players.
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Re: Vijay Singh

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It is nice to see Vijay on top once again. Two victories within first three months. Thats a good sign. The way he started the seaon with a victory, it looked Vijay will have a better year. The second victory of the year proves it. Last year - with just one victory, was a little letdown  for his standard. But he has proved it that he is still here to stay on, compete and win. Congratulations to him.

Vijay's 19 victories during his 40s:

Year Tournament
2003 EDS Byron Nelson Championship
2003 John Deere Classic
2003 FUNAI Classic at the WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort
2004 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
2004 Shell Houston Open
2004 HP Classic of New Orleans
2004 Buick Open
2004 PGA Championship
2004 Deutsche Bank Championship
2004 Bell Canadian Open
2004 84 LUMBER Classic
2004 Chrysler Championship
2005 Sony Open in Hawaii
2005 Shell Houston Open
2005 Wachovia Championship
2005 Buick Open
2006 Barclays Classic.
2007 Mercedes-Benz Championship
2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard
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Vijay Singh sets eyes on win in Indian soil

Post by ajay »

Big time golf is coming to India for the first time next year. And what a start would it be to have the likes of Vijay playing in India. Vijay Singh has come earlier to play Skin tournamnet, but he has never played in a regular tournament in India. Vijay will be the star player for the Johnnie Walker Classic - a tri-sanctioned (Europe/Asia/Auatralasia) event scheduled from February 28-March 2 next year at the DLF Golf & Country Club. Other star players confirmed are Colin Montgomerie and Ian Poulter -- along with world number six Adam Scott.

Here is a report.

Vijay Singh sets eyes on win in Indian soil
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Re: Vijay Singh thread

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Congratulations to Vijay Singh for winning his second tournament on the PGA Tour (Barclays Classic) this year. 
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Re: Vijay Singh thread

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Vijay Singh is at a solid T-3 in the TPC event in Boston at the halfway point -- two strokes behind leader Tim Clark. The Fedex Cup (with its $10MM payout) appears to be a battle between Vijay and Sergio Garcia with Phil Mickelson barely making the cut for this event.
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Re: Vijay Singh thread

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Vijay goes on to win the 2nd leg of the Fedex playoffs by a stunning 5 stroke margin after a closing 63 on a day when the scoring was not that easy. When his putts are falling, Vijay is right up there behind Tiger as the dominant player of his PGA generation.

He has also all but locked the Fedex title (and its $10MM annuity) barring a brilliant run by Sergio or Weir (each by winning both the last two events or something very close) and Vijay not doing much. Everyone else is pretty much out of it.
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Re: Vijay Singh thread

Post by kujo »

Vijay Singh should wrap up the FedEx cup win this week with a good performance in the BMW championship and simply have a ball out there in THE TOUR championship!! how about that? :) I am sure PGA will come up with another set of tweaks (next year) to prevent a boredom factor setting in due to dominant performance from Vijay this year.

Remember, last year Tiger Woods won despite not playing in one of the fedex cup playoff events. This year they tweaked it so that, it became a little bit harder to skip an event. You miss one and everyone else will have 2000 points to catchup with you.
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Re: Vijay Singh thread

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Vijay Singh won the FedEx Cup and the $10 million although his performance in the last two tournaments was sub-par per his standard. He has played recently with injuries to his arm and back and will skip some tournaments that he had planned to play this year. He will next play in December at Tiger Woods' tournament and father-son tournament.

I subscribe to Sports Illustrated magazine and there is an article written about Vijay by an Indian fan. I was going to type a couple of paragraphs from that article, but I did find that article in an on-line magazine also.
For me, Singh is one ideal of the minority sports figure. He does what he does, and he does it well. He does not apologize. He is not nice for the sake of being nice. He is not meek. He is Bonds at his best, without the steroid allegations or the self-pity.
I do care that young South Asian kids have one more possibility of what they can be. Tiger faded the color line in golf, but there are multiple color lines in this country, and Vijay is doing his own bit. He leads a flock of South Asians in professional golf that provides a brief history lesson on the movement of Indians across the globe. There is Arjun Atwal, Indian born and Long Island bred; Jeev Milkha Singh, the son of an Indian Olympian tearing it up on the European tour; Daniel Chopra, half-Indian, half-Swede and all bleached blond; and Vijay, the Indian from Fiji.
I did hear first-hand how Vijay took Daniel Chopra and Arjun Atwal under his wings when they first joined the PGA Tour. The three of them would play their practice rounds together.

A fellow Indian sees Vijay through a different lens
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Re: Vijay Singh thread

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Vijay Singh will turn 47-years-old on February 22, 2009 and one would expect him to slow down or not keep up with the young guns such as Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Mike Weir and Luke Donald, but Vijay made a birdie on the last hole of the season-ending Chevron World Challenge presented by Bank of America and beat Steve Stricker by a stroke and pocket $1,350,000. This is his first victory at the Tiger Woods hosted tournament and today's earnings carried his total earning for 2008 to over $18 million.

Vijay had been resting his injured arm after the PGA Tour Championship in late September and had made a significant change in his swing recently and they paid off in a big way this week.
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