My Sportsman Choice: Vijay Singh

By Gary Van Sickle

Vijay Singh says he wants to finish the season with 10 victories, meaning he would have to win the Chrysler Championship and the season-ending Tour Championship. Darren Carroll/SI  Chris Stone: Red Sox Nation, you've earned this one  Paul Zimmerman: Boy Wonder brought Boston a title  B.J. Schecter: Red Sox captured Boston's heart  Richard Deitsch: The Babe had a big presence in '04  Rick Reilly: Big Papi did it all for the world champs  Jeffri Chadiha: A reward for reversing The Curse  Lisa Altobelli: Ramirez never took anything seriously  • Sportsman of the Year archive

They are typical Tiger Woods numbers.

Nine victories. A record $10.7 million in earnings. Another major championship. The number one ranking in the world. Another Player of the Year award. Probably another Vardon Trophy (for lowest scoring average). And, of course, another major championship. Ho-hum.

These are the kinds of numbers that sparked Tigermania seven years ago, that the Tiger Era was built on, that defined the way Tiger Woods dominated golf in a way that before Tiger's arrival, experts assured us we'd never see again.

Except they're not Tiger's numbers. In 2004, they belong to Vijay Singh, the best golfer in the world. Now there's a phrase we haven't considered applying to anyone but Tiger in the last five years. There's no need to mention the attention-challenged media outlets who had already proclaimed Woods the best golfer of all-time. Woods had one victory in 2004 and it wasn't a stroke-play event. It was the Accenture World Match Play Championship and feel free to put an asterisk next to it. In match play, you need only beat one player per round. In stroke play, you have to beat the entire field over four rounds, considerably more difficult. Singh has done it eight times, including at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, one of the most demanding major championship venues in the modern era.

Woods has been named SI's Sportsman of the Year twice for his dominating golf. Singh is a leading candidate for SI's Sportsman of the Year Award because in 2004, he had a Tiger Woods year. His performance is even more impressive, by the way, because he had to beat Tiger Woods to do it. If Tiger had enjoyed another season like this, the applause would be louder and the levels of awe would rise, if that's possible. Because it was Singh, who isn't friendly with media and fans and who has minimal interest in anything that isn't furthering his ability to play golf, it has been a somewhat muted ascension to the throne. Singh has gotten attention and accolades, no doubt about it, but nothing like he would have received if he enjoyed even half the popularity of favorites such as Davis Love, Phil Mickelson or even Paul Azinger.

Singh is not exactly golf's version of Greta Garbo --I Vant to be Alone -- but he is like stonewalling legend Ben Hogan in many ways. Like Hogan, considered one of the game's great ball-strikers, Singh spends uncounted hours on the practice range. He's the hardest worker in golf, still, at 41. Like Hogan, he is obsessed with the game and mastering its secrets. Hogan chatted amiably with the few writers who covered golf for much of his playing career but became a reclusive, iconic figure later in life. His steely resolve may not have played well in today's bright media-driven game. The myth that the only thing he said during a round was, "You're away," or his famous icy reply to Gary Player's swing question was, "Call Mister Dunlop," and other stories about his intense desire for privacy may not have played well in an age when there's an entire cable channel devoted to golf.

Singh, who has a long, flowing follow-through, is a feel player who figured out the game out for himself while growing up in Fiji, later working at a course in the jungle of Borneo and on the hard-scrabble Asian tour stops. He raised his game in recent years because he's the only player who has dramatically improved his putting, and he did it by switching back to a conventional-length putter after using a long-shafted putter and a belly putter for several years. It has been an amazing revival. If Singh had putted well in the 1990s, he easily would've scored another dozen victories and probably several more major championships.

It has been a golf season like no other. The unbeatable Woods was not only beaten, he was dominated. The man who unseated Woods from the throne is no one-shot Buster Douglas fluke, no Jim Valvano buzzer-beater miracle, no Mark Fidrych one-hit wonder. He is the best player in the world and he rose to that level in the middle of the Tiger Woods Era. Or, perhaps, he ended the Tiger Woods Era.

The king is dead. Long live the king.

Sports Illustrated will announce the 2004 Sportsman of the Year winner on FOX on November 28. Check back every weekday until then to read more Sportsman picks from SI writers.