As far as the tournament goes, even though Vijay has bucked the trend he had followed in previous two GS by having good third round, I still feel he may not go all the way..
I guess this is the week everybody decides to throw egg at my face by proving my words wrong ... . Though i am not sad about it... But Vijay came very close to proving me right... I was watching his progress fully on the weekend (that itself should have cost him the championship) and on 15th hole when he hit a shot into bunker and Leonard within 10 feet and had a birdie putt, I switched off the TV and started driving to downtown to attend independence day celeberation. I had left something at home, so had to turn back ... and never left home till he won the championship.. YOu da man .. Congrats Vijay .. [/quote]
Also had a chance to watch his interview on the golf channel, where he had some interesting comments about the Last year Player of the year voting , and interviewer was trying to coax the statement that he is the best player in the world. It was an interesting interview.
There is a love-hate relationship between the media/PGA golfers and Vijay. They either love him or hate him, and there is nothing in between. The comment about Vijay changing his putter was probably said as a joke. Vijay has over 500 putters in his garage and he changes them so frequently that the PGA golfers know about it and probably poke fun at him.
The PGA golfers respect him but most media people in USA hate him, and now that he is getting ready to topple Tiger (I still like him), it is driving the media people crazy. Vijay does not like to lose, and most great champions have done the same. Tiger does not like to lose any less than Vijay but the media loves to drive that point when it is about Vijay.
Bhushan, I also understood that Toms probably meant it as a joke.. One great thing about Vijay's victory was he didn't have his 'A' game and still won.. I think that should probably increase his confidence in the majors to come..
Since there are two PGA tournaments this week, let us discuss the World Golf Championship in this thread to avoid the confusion of discussing both of them in the PGA thread.
What a shoot out it is going to be at the World Golf Championship! Vijay and Ernie are ready to topple Tiger from the thrown, and Tiger is desperately trying to hold on. And then there is Phil who wants to earn the "Player of the Year Award", which seems to belong to Vijay this year.
Here are the possibilities how Vijay can wrest the # 1 spot from Tiger (taken from the World Golf Championship web site)
"All Singh needs to do to wrest the No. 1 ranking in the world away from Tiger Woods after a record 332-week reign is finish higher if both are in the top 10 or in a tie if they are outside that number at the $7 million event."
This is how Ernie Els can become #1 in the world:
"One is to win, and have Woods finish below solo second. Another is to be the runner-up -- if Woods doesn’t finish in a two-way tie for fourth and Singh isn’t in a two-way tie for third. A third-place finish would do it, too, provided Woods is lower than 15th and Singh worse than 19th."
This is the tournament where the three top golfers are playing and each of them can leave the tournament with the # one ranking in the world. So one would expect all three of them to be fired up this week.
The first round was not completed today due to darkness but here are the partial results.
Tiger is tied for third place and is at -3 after 17 holes.
Ernie Els is tied for 13th place after eleven holes.
Vijay was among a handful of golfers who finished his round and is +3.
Come on Vijay. You will have to wrest the # 1 ranking from Tiger, and he is not going to give it up without a fight.
Vijay was among a handful of golfers who finished his round and is +3.
Vijay is probably suffering from post-pga hangover or his miserable fourth round streak continuing? I saw him at +1 through 17 , I guess he had a double at 18.. Anyway looks like Tiger is all set to extend his lead...
Every time Vijay and Ernie come close to toppling Tiger from his numero uno position, they start to falter.
Although Tiger is playing slightly above his "usual" play this year (-1 after 6 holes today), Ernie is +3 after 9 holes today and Vijay is +1 after 9 holes.
Kumar wrote:Vijay is probably suffering from post-pga hangover or his miserable fourth round streak continuing?
Ideally, it should not be difficult for Vijay to shake over his hangover as he is used to play week after week, whether he returns a good performance or a bad one. But, after all last week was not an ordinary success as it is only his 3rd major after a long gap. So there could be some hangover. On the other hand, Tiger must be hungry for a good result. And he has a motivation to keep his ranking intact. It'll be interesting to see what happens at the end of this tournament.
We have two PGA tournaments going on in different parts of the country and both are suffering from bad weather. The second round has not yet finished at either tournament by Friday, and will take place on Saturday.
The only good news for Vijay and Ernie is that this tournament does not hace a cut or else both would be taking a rest instead of playing over the weekend. They have two more rounds to come up with superb golf and give Tiger some sort of challenge.
Tiger is -3 for the tournament with 6 more holes to play in the second round, and is tied for 7th place.
Vijay is +5 for the tournament with 3 holes left to play in the second round and is tied for 64th place.
Ernie is +8 for the tournament with 3 holes left to play and is tied for 71st place.
I have good news and bad news. Vijay finally made some upward progress with 3 under part to move up to 36th position..
Now the bad news.. He needs a great final round say something like -6 or -7 and hope Tiger has +3 or +4 to catch Tiger who is currently -6...
Looks like we got to wait for the next tournament to see if Vijay can catch Tiger. His best hope is that Tiger does not win this tournament, which would make it almost impossible for Vijay to catch Tiger this year..
Ernie could not get himself going and is languishing at the bottom of the leaderboard..
This tournamet is for Stewart Cik to win or loose. With a lead of 5 strokes, he just need to play an average round to keep Tiger Woods away. But Tiger is definately going to put pressure on Stewat Cink in order to get his 2nd win of the year.
Tiger is putting a brave fight in defending his #1 spot. That makes the chase for #1 spot by Vijay and Ernie much more interesting.
I've been following Vijay Singhs career over the years. Here is the first ethnic Indian who has ever been truly at the top of his sport. Yet strangely he doesnt seem to attract much enthusiam from the Indian media or even most Indian sports fans because he doesnt carry an Indian passport.
By comparison Michael Chang in his heyday was always a star attraction in the Far East despite being a foreign national. The Chinese in Hong Kong, Singapore Taiwan valued a fellow ethnic chinese sporting success.
Personally I think Vijay Singh should be given the highest possible Indian presidential award for a foreigner if he confirms his status as world number one as well as being 3-time major champion.
Would you agree?
I think he will be world number one by the end of the year.
Personally I think Vijay Singh should be given the highest possible Indian presidential award for a foreigner if he confirms his status as world number one as well as being 3-time major champion.
Jothy, Welcome to Golf and Sports-India forum!!!! You should participate in the weekly golf contest that we have here...
I Would definitely not mind Golf federation of India facilitate Vijay, IF he gets to numero one ranking (that's a big IF mind it). But highest presidential award for a foreigner, I am not so sure about that. I would definetely not agree with that.
