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Still nobody over here knew anything about Vijay, who less than ten years before was a teaching professional in the jungles of Borneo. Back then Vijay was nothing, they talk about the rags to riches story of Lee Trevino, his story pales against Vijay. Yes Trevino was poor but at least he was an American and was able to get a break by going into the Marines.
Vijay didn't have the same advantages being brought up one of five kids in a poor family in a poor country. He had to work hard giving lessons to raise the money to travel and play in Asia and then Europe. Once Singh got more golf experience under his belt from other parts of the world he had faith in himself knowing the next step was to make a name for himself on the world stage. To do that you had to be a member and part of the PGA Tour over in America.
That's why Palmer played an important part in Singh's life because he saw some promise in Singh and granted him an exemption. With that start Vijay was able to parlay that with a T2nd finish which got him into the Players Championship. He finished T28th there and then played the next week at the New Orleans Open and finished 5th. With those three great finishes he was able to get a temporary PGA Tour card and three months later at Westchester Vijay won for the first time and as the old saying goes, "the rest is history".
Now in the last 14 years Singh has always come back to Bay Hill to play in Arnie's event, one that he always wanted to win for the man that had faith in him back in '93. Still every time Vijay came to Bay Hill he left disappointed. Some of the really rough starts came with his first runner-up finish in '93 followed by a bogey-bogey finish in 1994 to lose to Loren Roberts. More was to come, how about the 7-iron into the lake on the 18th two years ago to lose to Kenny Perry. So when he got the lead on Sunday, he made sure that wouldn't happen Sunday.
Singh played well on Sunday, especially in the middle of the round that he was able to stroll in on the closing holes. Even with a bogey-bogey-par finish, the 44-year-old Fijian still matched the best score of the final round with a 3-under-par 67 that gave him a two-shot victory over Rocco Mediate
So with the win he was able to give "The King" a nice thankyou to the tournament host that played such an important part in his life 14 years ago.
Keys to victory for Singh
On a top final round, Vijay was able to find his game and shot low enough to move up the leaderboard. In the final round he had a great stretch were he made bogey in four of five holes from 5 to 9. In his front nine of 31 Singh also took only 9 putts which was a key in which he made all the key putts that he needed to make.
Here are some other keys for his victory:
- Stat wise Vijay hit 52 of 72 greens, it was second best. That's an important stat at Bay Hill of all the champions since 1997 only three have not been in the top-ten in this stat.
- Singh's 18 birdies was the most from the week
- One of Vijay's problems over the year is putting, last week as an example at the PODS he missed a lot of short putts down the stretch. But this week he had one of his better weeks, from 9 feet in out of 65 putts he only miss four putts of them.
Singh's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 50 of 56 ..... (36) Driving average: 277.8 ..... (38th) Greens hit: 52 of 72 ....... (2nd) Putts: 114 (28.50 a rd) .... (T22nd) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 1 1-putt greens: 30 2-putt greens: 39 3-putt greens: 2 Play on par 3s: Even Play on par 4s: -3 Play on par 5s: -5 Eagles: 0 Birdies: 18 ................ (1st) Scrambling: 12 of 20 (60.00%)... (T27th)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
What This Win means for Singh
- Singh earns his 31st career victory in his 363rd event on the PGA Tour at the age of 44 years and 24 days. His win comes in his 15th start at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he has made 15 cuts with six top-10s. His previous best finish was T2 in 1993, 1994 and 2005.
- With his 31st PGA Tour victory, he is tied for 14th on the all-time win list with Harry Cooper and Jimmy Demaret.
- Singh's victory gives him wins in 23 different PGA Tour events, and he owns four victories in the state of Florida (Chrysler Championship, The Honda Classic, Funai Classic, Arnold Palmer Invitational).
- His 19 wins since turning 40 are the most by a player over the age of 40; Sam Snead had 17. Funny to point out that he has the same number of wins in his 40 as Davis Love III, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite won in their entire careers. This was also his 53 career professional victory worldwide and his 13th come-from-behind victory when trailing entering the final round.
- It's funny, you look at Singh's last two wins at Bay Hill and the Mercedes Benz Championship, Vijay has won in events that he finished 2nd in before. Looking at his career there are four events that he has finished runner-up in and not won.
BMW Championship
British Open
Players Championship
WGC-CA Championship
- Also there are these three events that he finished 3rd in and have never won:
WGC-Bridgestone
Verizon Heritage
U.S. Open
