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In recent years, the PGA tour has been essentially owned by Tiger Woods. To be exact, Tiger held the world’s number one ranking for 334 weeks, 264 of them consecutively from Aug 15, 99 to Aug 29, 04. This record breaking streak came to an abrupt end when golf’s hottest player and current number one Vijay Singh beat out Woods to win the Deutsche Bank Championship in late August of this year. On Sunday, Vijay continued his remarkable play with his third consecutive tour win. This win coming in the second year of the 84 Lumber Classic, in Farmington Pennsylvania.

“That’s a great way to start a relationship,” said Singh who only six days prior, agreed to an 84 Lumber sponsorship. He joins fellow golfer John Daly as the company’s spokespersons. Not only was this Singh’s third consecutive tournament win, but his 8^th overall this season, by far his best PGA tour showing. With the victory, Singh also set a new tour earnings record, surpassing Woods’ 2000 earnings total of $9,188,321.00. The $756,000.00 paycheck Singh earned on Sunday bumped his 2004 earnings to $9,455,566.00, and he still has four more events scheduled for this year.

“It was just a matter of time before I beat it,” he said of his new record. “And I’ll be trying very hard to win one or two more.”

Singh, born in the tiny Island nation of Fiji, is of Indian descent. He was destined for greatness by the name given to him, “Vijay,” which means ‘victory’ in Hindi.

On Sunday, he beat out Stewart Cink by one stroke, and finished at 15 under par for the tournament. He never trailed in this event, going start-to-finish for the victory. Woods was expected to challenge Singh for the title, but he pulled out early last week blaming fatigue from the Ryder Cup loss as the reason for his absence. After a stellar 2003 campaign, which included four tournament wins and 18 top-ten finishes, the 41 year old Singh, is peaking. His eight 2004 victories came at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am, Shell Houston Open, H P Classic of New Orleans, Buick Open, PGA Championship, Deutsche Bank Championship, Bell Canadian Open, and the 84 Lumber Classic. Though tremendously impressive, Singh still needs one more win to tie Wood’s career best of nine victories, which occurred in 2000. Singh also won three majors that year, and four in a row.

“Tiger won three majors in 2000, and that’s a pretty tall order. It’s so much more different to win three majors. But I’m going to try to enjoy my own good season. I don’t think I can go any better, really. It’s a run I hope never ends,” said Singh.

Singh’s next stop in 2004 will bring him to the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, (he recently withdrew from the WGC American Express Championship due to personal reasons), where he will seek to tie Woods’ career best of nine victories in one year. He will likely be the favorite at his remaining four tournaments due to his status as the world’s best golfer, a title he reinforced by increasing his lead over Woods by two full points. Without question, Woods has been the most dominant golfer in the world for the past four years, and he is not done winning yet. However, his reputation for being the most feared golfer is no longer his alone; it is a position that he now shares with the “Great Fijian,” Vijay Singh.

Balestrine's Bytes can be seen on the Pittsburgh Standard. He can be reached at jbalestrine@pittsburghstandard.com

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SEPTEMBER 2004

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Joe Balestrine
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