2007 PGA Tour (Dan's first PGA title)

[BSharma]

Daniel Chopra has earned the 2007 PGA Tour card and Arjun Atwal has the PGA conditional card for 2007.  Jeev Milkha Singh has played well on the EPGA Tour, JPGA Tour and Asian Tour in 2006 and he deserves to play on the PGA Tour.

here is one way that he can play on the PGA Tour in 2007.  Rule #13 of PGA Tour Priority Ranking:

13. Two international players designated by the Commissioner.

Has Jeev approached the PGA Tour Commissioner to get one of these two slots in 2007? 

[Prem]

Very interesting. Hope Jeev has been advised of this rule....and no harm in putting in his application.

[BSharma]

With several Nationwide Tour graduates doing well on the PGA Tour, there is talk that the number of golfers moving up to the big stage may go up to 25 per year.  I think that at one stage only 5 golfers per year got promoted from the Nationwide Tour to the PGA Tour.  Perhaps it might be time for some promosing young Indian golfers to try the Nationwide Tour as a way to get into the PGA Tour.  It might make sense for Shiv Kapur to try the PGA Qualifying tournament and if he does not succeed, he can look at the option to play on the Nationwide Tour.  The drawback is that there is less money on the NW Tour than on EPGA and JPGA Tours.

[BSharma]

The 2007 PGA Tour season will start with Mercedes-Benz Championship, a tournament limited to winners of 2006 PGA Tour events.  Vijay Singh is in the field, but Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will skip the tournament.  Tiger announced that his wife is expecting thier first child in the summer of 2007 and he wants to stay close to his family.  His first tournament on the 2007 PGA Tour will be Buick Invitational at end of January.

[Kumar]

And VJ had a good start and is 4 under tied with bunch of people for the lead

[BSharma]

KJ Choi hit the first golf shot of the 2007 PGA Tour and ended the day tied for the lead with three other golfers – Vijay Singh, Will MacKenzie, Brett Wetterich and Stephen Ames – at the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Kapalua, Hawaii.  The co-leaders shot a four-under par 69 on a day when gusty trade winds made life difficult for the world’s leading golfers.  Davis Love was a stroke behind at 3-under-par 70 and four golfers were tied at 2-under-par 71.  Twelve golfers broke par today.

The Mercedes-Benz Championship is the first of 40 tournaments that will award points to golfers in a season-long competition and the winner of the FedEx Cup will earn an extra $10 million.

The race is on. 

[Kumar]

After another 4 under par 2nd round, VJ singh is at the top of the leaderboard (this time alone)

[BSharma]

Vijay Singh held on to his first round lead and became the sole leader at the midway point of the Mercedes Championship.  His rounds of 69 and 69 got him to eight-under-par and earned him a one stroke lead over Trevor Immelman (-7) and Will MacKenzie.  First round co-leaders Stephen Ames (-3) and KJ Choi (even par) faltered and dropped down on the leader board

Vijay Singh has never won this tournament although he has been in contention in the past.  Is this his year to win the Mercedes Championship? 

[CJ Gibson]

actually.. on the note of Jeev... he did earn an international exemtion to the 2006 reno tahoe open where i had the pleasure to meet him and chat with his caddy

[Kumar]

VJ clings on to the lead.. But he is followed by Two best youngsters in game.. Immelman and Adam Scott. Luke Donald is also int hte mix.

[BSharma]

Kumar,

I believe that Vijay is more focussed than last year and he will win the Mercedes Championship this year.  He was battling some issues in 2006 and it affected his performance and it appears that he has sorted out those non-golf problems.

[Kumar]

Letz hope you are rite and he is able to pull this off.. It is going to be very interesting final round and unfortunately I don't have Golf channel .

[Kumar]

And at last somebody whom I rooted wins  . VJ was fourth time lucky after his close but no cigar 3 tries (2004, 2005 and 2006). This time VJ had 3 under final round to finish 2 strokes ahead of ADam scott and take the brand new mercedes home to his kid.

[BSharma]

Congratulations to Vijay Singh on winning his first Mercedes Championship, his 18th PGA Tour title since turning 40 years old and his 30th PGA Tour title.  His PGA Tour career earnings are now over $50 million - a feat he shares with Tiger Woods. 

For the trivia buffs, Vijay Singh is the correct answer to the question of the winner of the first tournament in the first season-long FedEx Cup.

[jaydeep]

Wow great start for Vijay on this 2007 PGA Tour season ... He never won this title and his last year performance was mediocre after his last few years performance ... So this victory will give him huge confidence and we will see different Vijay as Doc predicted in his earlier post.

At Mercedes-Benz Championship - Final Standing

1 Vijay Singh 69 69 70 70  -14 - $1,100,000
2 Adam Scott 73 69 69 69  -12 - $630,000
3 Trevor Immelman 71 68 72 72  -9 - $410,000
T4 Davis Love III 70 71 75 68  -8 - $260,000
T4 J.B. Holmes 73 68 71 72  -8 - $260,000
T4 Will MacKenzie 69 70 73 72   -8 - $260,000