Augusta, Ga. – For a man accustomed to walking a solitary path, Vijay Singh has drawn a lot of unwelcome attention recently. In the midst of a winless streak that has reached 16 starts, Singh may have bottomed out two weeks ago at The Players Championship, when a final-round 77 dropped him from second place to out of contention.
“At (The Players) I saw a lot of bad things in my golf swing,” Singh said after taking the opening-round lead of the Masters with a 5-under-par 67. “I think I had about nine calls. Everybody and their friend started to tell me about my golf swing.”
Typically, Singh chose not to listen and grinded out a solution on his own.
“I saw my golf swing on video and I found exactly what I was doing wrong. It was the same mistake that I’ve been doing forever,” he said. “I worked on it really hard last week and tried to fix it. It’s on the way, I guess.”
Mixed bag for champ
Tiger Woods began his quest for a fifth Masters title with an even-par 72, finishing with a birdie on 18. He missed a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 17.
It was very much a give-and- take day for Woods; he eagled the 440-yard, par-4 14th hole, sinking an 8-iron from 163 yards. He then double-bogeyed the 530-yard, par-5 15th.
Woods gave himself a birdie chance on 17 after a misplaced drive that required negotiating a tree fronting the green.
“It wasn’t so much difficult as embarrassing,” Woods said. “Guys are playing up No. 7 and here I am, ‘Guys, hold up and let me play my shot.’ I didn’t like the way I played seven anyway, so I should’ve played it again.”
Charting a course
Many players said the much-ballyhooed changes to Augusta National didn’t really come into play Thursday because of the benign conditions. That wasn’t to say they could take the course for granted.
“It’s going to be a long week,” 2002 International and PGA winner Rich Beem said. “It’s just brutal. I was telling my caddie as we were coming up the 18th hole that you have to stick with your game plan, whether you just made an eagle or a double bogey. No matter what happens you can’t go firing at pins; you have to stick to the places where you know it’s safe.”
Playing in his first Masters, Arron Oberholser said much of the controversy didn’t register with him.
“I don’t know what it’s supposed to be. All I have to go on is TV and history,” he said.
Footnotes
Former Denver resident Brandt Jobe shot an even-par 72, while 1982 Masters champ Craig Stadler finished at 5-over 77. David Duval shot a 12-over 84.
