Ordinary year turns extraordinary for Singh

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Vijay Singh is looking for his fourth win in five starts this week at the BMW Championship.

Vijay Singh has given the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup a decidedly different and unexpected look in Year II.

When Tiger Woods won the PGA TOUR's inaugural Playoffs in 2007, the four-event post-season competition followed a predictable script. Tiger is the leader going in, Tiger plays, Tiger wins -- just the way it was supposed to happen.

This year, in the absence of the regular season points leader, the expectation was that the Playoffs would be wide open. A lot of golfers were in with a chance and it would be hotly contested.

So much for conventional wisdom. Singh, who loves to play in the heat, has taken control and put quite a chill on the proceedings. He's 2-for-2 and his golf has been quite extraordinary.

It's Singh's prize to win and, in truth, there is little reason for him to think he won't. And that has less to do with the way he's playing. It has everything to do with the way Singh has always approached the game.

While many others in a similar position might be prone to some daydreaming about how to spend the $10 million first place bonus, anyone who knows Singh knows that he is immune to that kind of mental commotion.

For Singh, golf has always been about function over fancy. He's a golfer whose comfort level is highest in the solitude of the practice range where all that matters is the flight of golf balls, shaped this way and that, sent high and low.

Singh is attempting to do something this week at the BMW Championship that hasn't been done since 1999 when Woods won three consecutive events on the PGA TOUR. Woods, then 23, won the National Car Rental Golf Classic at Walt Disney World Resort, THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola and the World Golf Championships-American Express back-to-back-to-back.

If Singh runs the table at the FedExCup to win this week and the final event, THE TOUR Championship, he'll match Texan Jackie Burke, Jr., who was the last to win four consecutive events. In 1952, Burke won the Texas Open, Houston Open, Baton Rouge Open and St. Petersburg Open.

Of course, the record for most victories in consecutive events is off the charts and out of reach. In 1945, Byron Nelson won 11 events in a row.

While some might fast forward the discussion to ask questions about what such a resounding performance might mean to Singh and his legacy, the truth is that at this moment he cares little about that.

A few weeks from now it might be something for Singh to contemplate but not today after the first round of the rain-delayed BMW Championship began at Bellerive Country Club.

The FedExCup is formatted to have those playing the best over both the long and short term move forward. That speaks to the strength of the field. But Singh isn't calculating the odds of beating everybody in a strong field for the third straight week. That's not how his brain works. In his mind, he's starting the BMW Championship 0-for-0.

"You don't think about what you've done," Singh said. "If you start thinking about what you've done, then you've got issues. This is a new week, new golf course, new conditions, so I've got to focus on this week and see what happens."

For Singh, that means not thinking about or adding up the FedExCup points.

"I'm just really worried about this week," he said. "I'm going to go out there and just play as hard as I can. If I win, it'll be great. If I don't win, hopefully I can get enough points to clear it up. But my main focus is to go out there and play well.

"... When I'm on the golf course, I'm playing for me but nobody else, and that's the way I like it."

Let's go back to the Singh legacy and what role another victory, perhaps even two, in the FedExCup Playoffs might play in it.

The easy answer is that Singh's legacy already is set in concrete for all the things he has accomplished from humble and unique beginnings. At age 45, the Fijian has won 34 PGA TOUR titles, 22 of them since turning 40.

Singh has won more events on the PGA TOUR than any foreign-born player and is just four shy of moving into a tie for 10th among all-time career winners alongside Gene Sarazen and Tom Watson. Singh also has 22 international victories.

Only three golfers have ever won more events in a single year than Singh, who posted nine victories in 2004. They are Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. Nelson won 18 times in 1945. Hogan did it twice, winning 13 in 1946 and 10 in 1948. Snead won 11 in 1950. Tiger Woods (2000) and Paul Runyan (1933) each have won nine times in a calendar year.

Singh's performance in the FedExCup has turned an ordinary campaign through the first 7 ½ months and four major championships in 2008 into one of his finest. He has won three times in his last five starts and soared to the top of the official money list with $6,452,531. His career earnings are now over $60 million.

There is much more. He is second on the all-time PGA TOUR money list behind only Woods. Since 1999, only two men have been top money winner -- Woods (7 times) and Singh (twice).

Singh is traveling in rarefied company with the game's legends, past and present, and shows no signs of slowing down.

""I feel very comfortable with the golf swing," he said. "I understand it a little bit more now than I've ever done before, and I'm putting well. I feel like this is the best I've ever putted in my life, so that's a good thing to have this late in my career."

Sure it is. But it won't change his legacy. It will only make the footings for that concrete he's standing in deeper and more secure.