‘Fit’ Singh ready to contend

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 1999 | 10:45 a.m.

As PGA Tour professional Vijay Singh stood on the driving range at the Tournament Players Club in Summerlin on Tuesday talking with his caddie, a television reporter sauntered up to him.

"V! You been workin' out?" the reporter asked in an impressed tone.

Singh flashed a big smile, then answered in a mocking tone while deepening his voice, "I look good, don't I?"

As a matter of fact, he did.

Singh was to tee off at 12:40 p.m. today at the Desert Inn Golf Club for the first round of the $2.5 million Las Vegas Invitational.

The five-day tournament will be played at the home course TPC as well as satellite courses at the Desert Inn and the Las Vegas Country Club.

Singh wouldn't divulge the details of his training regimen, but the 1998 PGA champion looked like he was very lean.

"Yeah, I've been working on my physical condition," Singh said. "I mean I haven't worked the last two weeks because I've been traveling so much.

"This week I still have to get over the jet lag part, but I feel pretty comfortable and pretty fit."

Add that to his already solid game and it could spell trouble for the field.

This is Singh's third time playing in the LVI. In 1996, he tied for 40th and in 1993 he deadlocked for 13th.

But Singh is the highest-placed of the 144 pros entered here, standing fourth on the PGA money list with $1,961,750.

In March he won the Honda Classic. He has finished in the top 10 nine times this season and among the top 25 a whopping 18 times.

Still, he says things could be better.

"It's been going OK," Singh said of his year. "I played really good until the U.S. Open then it kind of slowed down a little bit.

"I had a disappointing four or five weeks, but I took some time off, went home and kind of worked on what I needed to work on.

"The year, if you look at the money list part of it, it's been very good. I would have loved to win one or two more events but it's so hard winning out here. If you're not at (the top of) your game you're not going to win. The players are so much better so you just have to go out there and make sure you play the way you're supposed to play."

Singh hasn't played in a tournament since the WGC NEC Invitational at the end of August. For the first time in his career, he says he was sort of "forced" to take four consecutive weeks off.

He planned to play the Canadian Open, but opted to stay home because he wasn't satisfied with the way he was playing. Then he was going to play in France, but a hurricane hit so he had no choice but to cancel his travel plans and stay home. The final week he had already planned on staying home so he used his time wisely.

Singh spent time with his wife and 9-year-old son, watched the Ryder Cup and tinkered with a few aspects of his game.

"Surprisingly, four weeks when you're at home goes really fast," Singh said. "The weeks went faster than I thought.

"It was like sometimes you don't have enough time. I did things around the house. I played a round of golf with my son so going with him for the first time was pretty good, too."

Now he's ready to compete again.

"My goal is to go out there and play the way I practice," Singh said. "If I play really good to my ability, it doesn't matter how the rest of the field is doing."