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From start to finish Singh's unusual route to green glory
Posted: Tuesday April 11, 2000 07:44 AM
His is an unlikely road to Masters success. It begins near a 9-hole golf course in Fiji, passes through the remote Malaysian island of Borneo and includes several stops along the way in the Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Vijay Singh has one of the more unusual backgrounds of those to have worn the winner's green jacket at Augusta National Golf Club. He grew up in the Fijian town of Lautoka, the son of a golf-mad aviation technician from Indian ancestry. Singh gives a lot of credit to his father for helping develop his game. 
"My Dad got me started," Singh said. "He was a good golfer and I always took over his clubs. From a very early age, I had a full set of clubs." Fiji, with a population of about 500,000, has only 12 golf courses, according to Singh. "In Fiji, golf is like cricket here [in the United States]," he said. "Not many people play it." In the early part of his career, Singh struggled to make a living from the game and took a position in the mid 1980s as a club professional in Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. "My wife is Malaysian," Singh said. "We had a little room...one bedroom...just a hotel room. We lived there for two years. "But it was good for my game. I would give a five or six lessons and then go out and practice for the rest of the day." Singh then played on the European tour for six years before basing himself in the U.S. in 1994. His European victories included the 1990 El Bosque Open in Spain and the 1992 Volvo German Open, but he also won tournaments in Morocco, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe. "I always wanted to play in America," he said. "And once I won here during my first full season of play, I believed I could win in any conditions at any golf course." Even so, Singh's once suspect putting gave him personal doubts about his ability to conquer the notorious Augusta greens at the Masters. In 1996, he was only four shots off the lead going into the final round, but carded a disastrous 82 on the Sunday to finish tied for 39th. His putting has improved with a more upbeat approach to the challenge of the greens. "If you'd asked me two years ago, I would have said I couldn't win here because of the way I was putting," he said. "But my attitude change was a big boost to that and that's why I'm sitting up here." Alongside Vijay at the winner's press conference was 9-year-old son Qass Seth, who is often by his father's side and helps him relax after a tough day on the course. "Even if I have a bad day, I come back to have a little boy smiling at me. I don't feel so bad anymore." It's two years since the Florida-based Singh was last back in his native Fiji, but he is planning to return home with his family in the next few months. "I haven't been back since I played a Skins game a couple of years ago but I'm looking forward to getting together with old friends and celebrating." Despite all his travels, Singh remains an uncomplicated family-man, proud of his heritage. His first-name in Hindi means "victory" so maybe it's not surprising that this talented and modest Indian-Fijian is taking his success in stride.
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