All those nice things I wrote about Vijay Singh not more than three days ago? I take them all back.
After posting a less-than-stellar score of two-over par through Saturday at the Tour Championship, Vijay Singh had this to say when asked about his performance:
“You’ve got to be in contention to be 100 percent into it,” he said, pausing outside the historic clubhouse. “I’m just not too into it.”
Last I checked, the people who keep Vijay’s “salary” paid – the sponsors and the fans who attend these events he’s so lucky to play – spend so much money on tickets to see their favorite players put 100 percent of their game on the line every round.
Since when do you have to be in contention to put in 100 percent?
“It just didn’t happen for me,” he said. “I couldn’t get any momentum. Anytime I tried to get something going, I went backward.”
Poor baby. Most of the time, when something doesn’t go right for me the first time, I just give up too, Vijay. I think that’s exactly the attitude I want my kids emulating, too.
I look at the men and women of the PGA tours, and most of them are just glad to be there. An event like the Tour Championship – a season-ending send-off for the top players on the PGA Tour – is designed for the fans. Sure, there’s a $6 million purse involved for the players to split among themselves, but it’s a collection of the year’s best players for one last tournament…
…and Vijay doesn’t feel like bringing his game for the fans.
I want to like Vijay. He’s an incredibly talented golfer and the personal animosity between him and Tiger only makes every tournament they’re both in that much more exciting.
Or rather, it should until I read this.
I don’t care how far out of contention you are: you’re on the PGA Tour. If you don’t want to put forth your best effort – for you, for the Tour, for your fellow competitors and most importantly for the fans – get off the Tour. There are plenty of players just waiting for a chance to take your place.
Am I out of line, here? Or, is this just another example of the kind of aloof attitude that other players and fans complain about when talking about Vijay?
More importantly, is 100 percent, 100 percent of the time too much to ask of the Tour professionals?
Tiger is a grinder, and several times this season in the middle of a bad round or a bad tournament, you see him giving everything. I’ve never seen – or heard – Tiger say he was mailing it in. Ever.
You are not out of line. From what I know about Vijay, he is a major prick. I’m a big fan of Els because he seems like the nicest guy out there with a game to die for.
Just type “Vijay Singh” and “cheating” in Google and see what you find. It seems that his own country of Fiji has disowned him.