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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 10, 2007

Vijay Singh

HONOLULU, HAWAII

Q. What's your mind-set coming in?
VIJAY SINGH: Pretty relaxed. I love the air over here, it's island air, just very calming effect. I don't have any hassles, not in a hurry. I guess that's how everybody feels when they come over here. You just take one step back.

Q. You must feel very comfortable and very confident.
VIJAY SINGH: I love the islands. If there was a place to settle down, this is where I would settle down, you know. It's so far away from the Mainland, it could be hard to commute.
I was here two weeks before the tournament. Probably that did more good than anything else. Just focusing so hard and practising too hard, you forget to live life a little bit. I came to Hawaii, it was more relaxed, and I did my work, but it was in a very low keyway.

Q. See anyone from Fiji?
VIJAY SINGH: Maybe one or two guys there from Fiji, said hi, bye. It's like you're meeting somebody from your place, you know. (Laughter).

Q. After the dust settled after the win in Kapalua, how satisfying is that given all of the hard work you had put into your swing in the off-season?
VIJAY SINGH: Yeah, it really is a very comforting thing to have a win underneath your belt and to go out there and say, even if I don't win this week, it doesn't matter because I've got one already. But if you look at it that way, okay, probably that's not the right way to look at it, but it's a comforting thing to know that, you know, you're on a good track.
I was talking to guys today and they said, now you can actually set your goals a little higher. You've already won. You've got the first one maybe you can fire up and go, and that's pretty much how I feel. It's actually more tiring the second or third day after you've won, because you went through so strong and the focus is so high, coming from such a high to almost a low. Especially in Hawaii, where everything is so low key, it takes a day to recover from that. I didn't feel that energized yesterday when I came over here.
Normally when you win a tournament, you come to the next week after, everybody is cheering you and here it was kind of like, still tired. But I need to pick myself up and get myself fired up again.

Q. Do you feel that there were some in the media that were starting to run you off?
VIJAY SINGH: Well, they always do that.

Q. I heard someone on the GOLF CHANNEL that said you would never be a Top-5 player again.
VIJAY SINGH: Yeah, I saw that. It's a shame. I mean, two years ago, I won nine events, three years ago I won four. So it's not like I went off the map or anything. I did finish high on the Money List last year. I still won a golf tournament.
I had a pretty average season last year. Didn't mean I was totally off the map. The rankings from two or three years ago, those points have to come off one way or the other. And I play a lot more events than pretty much everybody else, so, you know, I don't know how they say that.

Q. (Do you feel you can say now you've won)?
VIJAY SINGH: When you look at it, I can show them something, kind of thing. You just have to be careful that you don't get too involved in all that. You have it in the back of your mind, but you don't forget.

Q. So at the end of the day --
VIJAY SINGH: Bottom line is you've got to go out there and compete and if you're going to do it, you're going to do it.

Q. Obviously Tiger has set a benchmark for people, do you view yourself as sort of a role model for the 40-somethings?
VIJAY SINGH: I don't know. I try not to. If they want to take that as something to look forward to, yeah, I mean, I think it's good to be a role model for those guys.
But those guys are seasoned players and they know what to do. You go from 39 to 40 doesn't mean you are old. You have if a great season when you're 39 and you turn 40, it doesn't mean you're old.
It's a different story when you're going from 49 to 50 because then you have another TOUR that you can go and play. And if you get involved in that, it's a different story. But 29, 39 to 40, I don't think it really matters. It's the motivation you have and how keen you are to go out there and play.
If guys want to pick me as a role model, why not. They have to work at it. If they want to do what Vijay is doing, you have to go out and do it.

Q. The Ironman socks, are you training for something?
VIJAY SINGH: They are the most comfortable socks I've found. Why not? They do all kind of things, they must be comfortable.

Q. David Toms is saying the course is softer this year. Will that suit the longer hitters like yourself?
VIJAY SINGH: There will be a lot of low scoring. There is more rough here than last year. Definitely that will be a factor. But the greens are stopping and it's going to get a lot more bumpier because you can chew them up pretty easily.
I think at the end of the day, it will probably play one or two shots easier than past years. You know, trades are blowing again, so it may dry out very quickly.

Q. Tomorrow you don't see any problems?
VIJAY SINGH: I think I'm okay. I'm just keeping myself up. I'm going to go to the range and going to the gym later on and I'm playing tomorrow afternoon which is better.

Q. I think the guys that did not get into the field will be upset because Michelle Wie is playing?
VIJAY SINGH: If there's four or five, they could have got in, too. It doesn't bother me. I think at the end of the day she has to decide what is good for her and what is not. Her team has to decide what is good and what is not.
It would be nice if she gets her goal and she makes the cut. If she does that, then maybe she can get on and play some golf. I'd like to see her win, go out there and make a real name for herself, that she can really do that. She's a great player and will be a great player on the ladies tour. I think she won't do that if she keeps playing here and doing what she's doing now.

Q. You don't think she will do that?
VIJAY SINGH: I don't think she will -- you can't get a rhythm. You have to feel a rhythm about your swing, but how can you, planning to play the tour. You cannot just jump on one tour and especially if you're a 16-year-old girl. I wouldn't want my boy to do that and he's 16. There's no way I would have him jump around.

Q. She only gets to play on the LPGA a number of times because of her age.
VIJAY SINGH: Yeah, but she can get invites playing other events though.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: She could petition the LPGA to give her her card but she's choosing not to.
VIJAY SINGH: I don't know what the situation there is. But in that case, it's depending on how it's going to affect her confidence, you know. She's a big girl but she's still a girl. She's a 16-year-old girl.
So to compete against guys that are going out there -- the guys out there are not scared of anything, they are not even scared of the tough guys. So they are not really worried about a girl going out there and beating that.
So it's going to be harder for her in that sense so compete against some of the young guys. They are stronger, they are bigger. I just think she wants to do it for one or two more events, but sooner or later she has to decide that she can be a very great -- one of the greats in golf, but she won't do it on the men's tour. She's a good player.

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