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Driven Singh not shy about dishing it out

Johnette Howard

June 17, 2004

Given his terrific tournament success, his penchant for blunt talk, his occasional willingness to rattle Tiger Woods' grill more often than anyone else in golf, fear is not a word you'd typically associate with Vijay Singh. Neither is guilt.

But there was Singh at Shinnecock Hills yesterday, describing his approach to golf and his hopes for the U.S. Open, and admitting that his tireless practice habits aren't simply a matter of being obsessed with detail or some overdeveloped drive to win.

Singh is such a perfectionist that he hates to take a day off from golf, hates that ever-so-slight loss of feel that sets in on his swing.

But neither that nor his unique path to the PGA Tour - start in Fiji, endure a two-year exile in Borneo, work your way up the Safari Tour in South Africa before qualifying for the PGA Tour - are not all the thoughts that drive him.

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Those 500 to 1,000 practice balls Singh hits most days? Those hours he spends sharpening every shot as the light fades on the rapidly emptying practice range? The six-days-a-week workouts with a personal trainer? That's all about something else, something most golfers fight sooner or later: Taming the Neurotic Within.

"I don't want to lose my golf swing; that's my biggest fear," Singh said yesterday. "It's twice as hard to find it back than when you have it ... You lose your rhythm, you do lose your timing, but I don't want to wake up one day and say, 'How am I supposed to play this game?' There are a lot of guys that have done that in the past, and" - here, his eyebrows ticked up ever so slightly - "they've never come out of it."

Given that Singh isn't a man prone to long slumps or a lack of ego, his ramblings about fear - and his additional admission that yes, he'd have won a few more majors by now if only he'd shouldered the pressure better - were interesting.

After all, anyone can talk bravely about liking their chances against Woods now that Woods is spraying his tee shots around fairways and riding an 0-for-7 streak at the majors. But no one on the PGA Tour has tweaked Tiger as often or talked as openly about intending to run him down as Singh has the past few years, even when Woods was at his zenith.

Singh, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson have all taken turns being the hottest player in golf this year while Woods has searched for his A-game. Yet even Mickelson, fresh off a Masters victory just weeks ago, still tiptoed around the Woods question Tuesday, talking about Tiger as if he's some ticking time bomb about to go off.

Which is absolutely true. But still ... it's enough to make you want to give Mickelson a tumbler of single malt Scotch and say, "Get a hold of yourself, man."

"I don't know if we've caught him, if the gap has narrowed or not, but I think we all expect him to come out and light it up like he usually does," Mickelson said Tuesday. "I think it's very, very soon going to happen. I just hope we can put it off as long as possible."

Singh gives no such quarter.

Four years ago, the relationship between Singh and Woods began a downward spiral from professionally cordial to arctic cold when Singh's caddie at the 2000 Presidents Cup wore a cap inscribed "Tiger Who?" before their terse singles match. Woods won, 2 and 1. Last fall, Singh openly declared his hope of beating Woods for the 2003 player of the year award (Woods won) and the money title (Singh prevailed, by $900,000, though Woods could - and did - retort that Singh played in nine more events). After a win in Phoenix in January 2003, Singh said, "Tiger has had a great run, but everything comes to some sort of stop sooner or later."

Yesterday, Singh said if he maintains the level he's playing at right now, "I don't have to fear anything."

In a sport of too many clones and auto-generated responses, it sounded so ... refreshing.

Singh can occasionally come across as a churl - never more so than when he griped last year that Annika Sorenstam "doesn't belong out here" on the PGA Tour, not even for one tournament.

Of the four men generally considered to reside atop golf right now - Woods, Els, Mickelson and Singh - the 41-year-old Singh is the one whose game would seem less suited to win at Shinnecock. Unlike the others, Singh isn't particularly known for his short-game magic, which will be essential to win. If a soft spot appears in Singh's wonderful game, it's usually his putting. But Singh, like Woods, is a world-class grinder with vise-grip concentration. Singh has the ambition to match Woods, too.

"I'm not worried, I'm not excited, I'm not nervous about going out there and playing tomorrow," Singh said. "I'm eager ... I'm playing as good as I've ever played."

Now that - that's scary.

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