USPGA Mercedes Championship:The new era in golf brought out the old version of Vijay Singh. Coming off his least productive season in five years, the 43-year-old Singh delivered a strong statement on Sunday that he's still around by closing with a three-under 70 for a two-shot victory over Adam Scott in the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship.
It was the 30th victory of his PGA Tour career and 18th since he turned 40, breaking the record held by Sam Snead.
And Singh finally walked off the Plantation Course at Kapalua with the winner's lei around his neck and the keys to a new car, which he said he would give to his son.
He has been runner-up here twice in the last three years, and has never finished worse than eighth since this winners-only tournament moved to Maui.
This time, no one stood a chance. He doubled the size of his three-shot lead after two holes in the final round, and only a late charge by Scott kept it interesting.
Singh finished at 14-under 278 and along with $1.1 million to push him over $50 million for his career, he earned 4,500 points for the new FedExCup competition.
And the victory in Hawaii has lifted the Fijian up two places to fifth in the world rankings.
Singh was the last player to dislodge Tiger Woods from the number one spot, but fell from second to seventh last year.
"Hopefully it doesn't stop there," he said afterwards. "I feel good and I'm looking forward to the season. Hopefully there's a lot more wins.
"Life doesn't stop at 40 - it just begins I guess. And anyone who says 43 is old can go to hell!
"Fred Funk won a golf tournament when he was 48 and I'm a lot bigger and a lot stronger than Freddie Funk, so if he can win at 48 what makes me think I'm not going to win when I'm 50?"
Scott, not 27 until July, is now a career-high third in the rankings after his runners-up finish, relegating the still-resting Phil Mickelson to fourth.
"I was totally in control of my game," said Singh. "I was just a little concerned if (Scott) went birdie, birdie (at the last two holes), I'd have to birdie one, but I wasn't at any point worried about my position."
"Coming from Fiji, it's not easy what I've done in my career," added Singh."It's a miracle winning one golf tournament, coming from Fiji.
"Sometimes when you don't win for a while, in the back of your head you have some kind of pressure, and this eases all the pressure.
(USA unless stated, par 73):
278 - Vijay Singh (Fij) 69 69 70 70
280 - Adam Scott (Aus) 73 69 69 69
283 - Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 68 72 72
284 - Will MacKenzie 69 70 73 72, JB Holmes 73 68 71 72, Davis Love III 70 71 75 68
285 - Luke Donald (Eng) 72 71 71 71
286 - JJ Henry 74 73 68 71, KJ Choi (Kor) 69 77 71 69, David Toms 75 72 72 67
287 - Troy Matteson 73 70 70 74, Stephen Ames (Can) 69 74 74 70
288 - Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 71 78 68 71, Chris Couch 71 70 77 70, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 73 72 72 71
289 - Kirk Triplett 75 73 69 72, Joe Durant 73 73 72 71
292 - Jim Furyk 71 74 76 71
293 - Tim Herron 75 72 72 74, John Senden (Aus) 73 74 75 71, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 74 72 74 73
294 - Rodney Pampling (Aus) 74 80 71 69, Brett Wetterich 69 79 73 73, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 72 75 77 70
295 - John Rollins 77 74 70 74
296 - Eric Axley 78 75 74 69
297 - Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 77 72 78 70
301 - Corey Pavin 75 75 74 77
302 - Dean Wilson 80 78 72 72
303 - Jeff Maggert 76 74 74 79
305 - Chad Campbell 77 75 78 75
306 - D.J. Trahan 79 77 75 75
312 - Ben Curtis 81 78 77 76
