Pebble in his pocket, No. 1 on his mind
Vijay Singh's mission to dethrone top-ranked Tiger Woods is looking less impossible every week.
| Is Vijay catching up? | ||
|---|---|---|
| A look at the numbers shows that over the last half-season (since the 2003 British Open), second-ranked Vijay Singh has outplayed No. 1 Tiger Woods. | ||
 Vijay Singh |
 Tiger Woods |
|
| Events | 16 | 9 |
| Wins | 3 (19%) | 1 (11%) |
| Top 3s | 9 (56%) | 3 (33%) |
| Top 10s | 15 (94%) | 7 (78%) |
| Money | $6,146,095 | $2,695,993 |
| Per event | $384,131 | $299,555 |
The 2003 money leader has undoubtedly been the best player in the world since last July, and earned his first victory of 2004 rather easily Sunday at Pebble Beach. In the last eight months, the second-ranked Singh has three wins, 15 top-10s (in 16 tournaments) and has earned more than $6 million.
Woods -- who returns to the tour this week for the first time since early January -- probably isn't sitting at home shaking in his Nikes, but he's definitely looking over his shoulder. Singh is within 3.08 points of Woods in the latest World Ranking, the narrowest margin between Tiger and the second-ranked player since the standings were revamped in September 2001.
If Woods was watching the final round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, what he saw was a clinic on how to surge ahead and stay there. Singh, who began the day tied for the lead, birdied his first three holes and put it in cruise control from there, displaying pinpoint control with his irons (he hit two flags and chipped in once) and making enough putts to keep the rest of the field comfortably behind.
Some of Singh's highlights:
It was Singh's third top-10 finish in as many starts in 2004 (and 12th straight overall, just two back of Jack Nicklaus' modern-day record), and puts him atop the money list for the first time this season.
Still, he faces quite a challenge to catch Woods in the World Ranking, the goal he said would take him at least until next season to accomplish. Woods has built a lofty perch atop the World Ranking, but his lead is getting less comfortable every time Singh tees it up.
| Around the tours ... |
|---|
 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Site: Pebble Beach, Calif. Courses: Pebble Beach Golf Links (6,816 yards, par 72) Spyglass Hill Golf Course (6,862 yards, par 72) Poppy Hills Golf Course (6,833 yards, par 72) Top finishers: 1 Vijay Singh (-16) 2 Jeff Maggert 3 Phil Mickelson T4 Mike Weir T4 K.J. Choi T4 Arron Oberholser T7 Jesper Parnevik T7 Mark Hensby T7 Tom Pernice, Jr. T10 Kent Jones T10 Corey Pavin T10 Scott McCarron T10 Bill Glasson
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| Mickelson |
Phil Mickelson posted his third straight top-10 finish at Pebble, and just missed a spot in the final group for the third straight Sunday. In just three starts, Mickelson has earned $1.3 million, about $285,000 less than what he made all of last year.
The biggest difference? Mickelson has hit more than 70 percent of his fairways in each of his three tournaments. Last year, he averaged less than 50 percent.
This week, Mickelson returns to the site of last year's first meeting with Woods. Phil's forgettable Buick Invitational began with his controversial "inferior equipment" comments and ended with a Sunday showdown with Woods that turned out to be a dud. Tiger pulled away early and won the tournament by four strokes.
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| Els |
The Big Easy had it in cruise control after his European Tour record-tying round in Melbourne, Australia, sitting at least four strokes ahead of the pack after Day 1 and taking an eight-stroke lead into the final round.
That's when he nearly spilled his Heineken all over himself.
Els opened Sunday's play with two bogeys in his first three holes, then triple-bogeyed the fourth and made another bogey on the seventh. He went out in 6-over 42 -- 13 strokes worse than he played his first nine holes on Thursday. When he made the turn, he had lost his eight-stroke lead and was tied with Adam Scott. But Els recovered after that, birdieing four of his next five and making pars the rest of the way to hold off Scott by a stroke.
The victory was Els' second of the year and marked his second scorching start in as many seasons. Last year, he won four of his first five events. He's taken two of his first four in 2004.
Next up for Els is a short break, then a decision on whether to play in the Accenture Match Play Championship. He doesn't like the La Costa course and has hinted he might skip the event. If he does, the next time he'll play on the PGA Tour will likely be at Bay Hill in mid-March.
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| Wie |
The 14-year-old Wie was named the youngest-ever member of the U.S. Curtis Cup squad on Friday, then Sunday finished 38th (out of 192) at the Hawaii Pearl Open -- her second men's event of the year. She was at 2-under for the 54-hole tournament.
Wie finished second among the amateurs in the field, which also included 62 U.S. pros and 70 pros from the Japanese tour.
She played in front of the tournament's only gallery, thanks mostly to her impressive performance at the PGA Tour's Sony Open last month.
Next up for Wie is a return to competition against women. She'll play in next month's Safeway International on the LPGA Tour, and a week later will tee it up in the tour's first major: the Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she finished tied for ninth last year.
David Lefort is ESPN.com's golf editor, and he can be reached at david.m.lefort@espn3.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
