Survival of the fittest

Vijay Singh's physical prowess allows him to play 28 events a year on the PGA Tour alone

Vijay Singh

For years, the belief even on the PGA tour was that golfers did not really need the kind of fitness levels that other athletes like track stars, swimmers or footballers needed.

The old-time golf stars hardly looked perfect in terms of physical conditioning. Walter Hagen loved to party and yet played the best when it came to golf. Jack Nicklaus is possibly the greatest golfer to have walked on this earth, but he hardly raised visions of a supremely fit track star.

Tiger Woods was just 20 years old when he hit the PGA Tour in 1996, but in terms of physical fitness, he was a freak even then. Seldom had a golfer taken fitness to such levels. He looked slight simply because he was so fit. At six feet two, Tiger tips the scales at 180 pounds, and there isn't an ounce of extra flesh on him.

Even in the first few years when Tiger took the golfing world by storm, no one really gave much credit to his amazing fitness. He was thought to be supremely talented, the kind of person who God wanted to play only golf.

Then, slowly, it dawned on others that what set him apart was not just his talent but his physical conditioning that came in packaged with his mental toughness.

In the following years, golfers like Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie, Phil Mickelson and so forth realised the importance of physical fitness and took it seriously.

But none embraced it more rigorously that Vijay Singh. The Fijian-born golfer, a very private person with legendary tales of practice rigours, decided to add a fitness regimen to his 'to do' lists soon after he turned 35 in 1998.

Now at 41, he is almost like a senior statesman on the PGA Tour. But he is also one of the fittest "" probably as fit as Tiger. As tall as Tiger, he is 18 pounds heavier but shows no sign of extra flesh. Many in the golfing circle reckon Vijay, who easily puts in the most number of hours on a range or practice chip-putt areas, is now putting in as many hours in the gym.

During a short break at the end of last season, Singh set up a modern gym at his home in Ponte Vedra. It is said that on any given day, when he is not playing a tournament, he logs in as many as 8-10 hours of practicing or is in the gym. And even when he is playing a round "" practice or even a tournament "" he still clocks in four to five hours in terms of practice and gym work.

Vijay knows that at 40-plus, he must be fitter than others to keep pace. He plays about 28 events in a year on the PGA Tour alone, which is seven to eight events more than Tiger Woods each year. At that level, and at his age, he needs to be physically and mentally fit.

Vijay candidly admits surprise that he is playing well at this age, but at the same time adds, he feels fitter now than when he was 25. Vijay was always the one to spend a lot of time at the driving range, but physical fitness was something that he gave attention to only after he turned 35.

Now at an age when most golfers are striving to spend the rest of the decade trying to stay on the Tour and then wait for the 50-plus Champions Tour, Vijay, last year, achieved what he has never done in his life "" win the Money title.

He was beaten to the Player of the Year award narrowly by Tiger, who for the first time in five years had been dethroned from the Money List. Now his goal is taking over the No. 1 rank, which Tiger has held for the last 247 weeks.

Late last year, Vijay ran up a fantastic streak of top 10s, which saw him grab the Money title. And now he has back-to-back victories and three in all this season, when it is still early days in the season. He has already amassed $4.26 million and is leading the Money List. What's more he is steadily closing the gap between him and Tiger Woods in terms of World Golf Rankings, too.

The gap, which at one stage was almost four points is now down to 2.14 "" the narrowest in almost four years. Points watchers aver that if Vijay can log two more wins in succession and Tiger performs below his lofty standards, the big Fijian could well overtake Tiger in a matter of weeks, or just past the US Open.

Suddenly, the invincible Tiger Woods is looking human and it took a 40-plus golfer to show us that.