Vijay Singh won nine tournaments in 2004. 2004 was know more for Tiger’s failings than Fijian’s 9 victories .
Vijay Singh won nine times on the PGA Tour in 2004, including a major championship. But nobody outside of Fiji seemed to care.
When Tiger Woods triumphed nine times in 2000 - yes, with three majors - he was anointed God-like status by media and fans alike.
When Singh managed a similar accomplishment, it was greeted with something approaching a collective yawn. Ask people who don’t follow golf what they know about Singh and you’ll be greeted by blank looks.
Ask the very same people about Woods, and they will no doubt want to know details of his recent wedding.
In a celebrity-obsessed culture, merely being the best in your craft is not enough. You need the sizzle to sell the steak, which is why the 2004 will be remembered as much for what Woods didn’t do as for what Singh did.
What Woods didn’t do was dominate golf. He won only once on the PGA Tour, at the World Golf Championships Match Play Championship in February, and finished fourth on the money list, his worst ranking since also finishing fourth in 1998.
And although he ended the year with back-to-back victories in Japan and at his own unofficial tournament in California, it remains to be seen whether he really is back to his formerly brilliant best.
On the course at least, his void in 2004 was filled by Singh, whose dominance over the second half the season - including one stretch where he won five times in six starts - was truly magnificent.
His playoff triumph at the PGA Championship was the pinnacle of his year, but he was far from content to rest on his laurels. Rarely, if ever, has a 41-year-old been so consistently brilliant.
Singh assumed the world No. 1 ranking in early September, ending Woods’ reign of more than five years, and capped off the year by not only finishing atop the money list for the second successive year, but also collecting the Vardon Trophy for the best stroke average, and the Player of the Year award as voted by his peers.
Singh’s awesome finish made it easy to forget that until July, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els were the best players in the world, certainly in the majors. They staged a magnificent duel at the Masters, where Els fired a final-round 67, only to watch as Mickelson birdied the last hole to finally - at the age of 33 -win a long overdue major championship.
Mickelson came agonizingly close in the other three majors, losing by a collective five shots. How close he was to the Grand Slam was obscured because he went largely missing after August, conspicuous only for his dreadful performance at the Ryder Cup, where he struggled with a poor pairing and new equipment.
But at least Mickelson won a major. Els came up empty, despite contending in all four. The native of Zimbabwe lost a playoff to Todd Hamilton at the British Open and finished one shot out of a three-way playoff at the PGA Championship. He also was in the hunt at the U.S. Open until he faded with a final-round 80.
With Singh and Els at the top of the sport, it may seem as if the balance of power has shifted away from the U.S. and Europe. However, the Ryder Cup remains the game’s most compelling attraction, and this year’s installment at Oakland Hills, Michigan was no exception.
The Europeans are always underdogs based on the world rankings, but they dominated from the first shot to the last, winning by nine points for captain Bernhard Langer and leaving hapless and helpless American captain Hal Sutton to try to explain the inexplicable.
In particular, Sutton’s decision to pair Woods and Mickelson for two matches on the first day backfired. A blind man could see their incompatibility as they lost both times before being belatedly split up.
In women’s golf, Annika Sorenstam continued to dominate the LPGA, winning the money title for the fourth straight year. But she began the year by declaring her goal to be the Grand Slam, so eight victories in 18 starts, including one major, didn’t seem particularly special.
In the larger LPGA picture, 2004 also saw the continuing trend of South Korean domination, with four of the top 11 players on the money list hailing from that relatively small golfing nation.
Thankfully, the trend of women playing in men’s events so evident in 2003 largely ended - with one notable exception. Michelle Wie contested her hometown Sony Open in Hawaii, and the 14-year-old came within a shot of making the cut, thanks largely to brilliant putting.
Wie is returning in January for another crack at the men. But it seems that with rare exceptions, the novelty of women competing against men has worn off.