Vijay Singh defies aging, makes Sony Open cut

In mid-January the PGA Tour kicked off its 2026 season with the Sony Open on Oahu, Hawaii at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. Normally, for years the first tournament was the Sentry Tournament of Champions held at Kapalua Country Club on Maui, but due to water issues the course was not suitable for tournament play.

The Sony Open, played there since 1965, was won by rising PGA Tour star Chris Gotterup. One of the top stories of the week was long-time tour veteran, 62-year-old Vijay Singh, who now plays on the PGA Tour Champions circuit. Two days into the tournament the story got bigger after Singh made the cut to play for the weekend.

This is a story that I thought should make all the senior golfers out there take notice and not bemoan the idea of getting too old to play really good golf.

Having been born and raised in Fiji (a Pacific island), Singh grew up playing cricket, soccer and rugby, the island’s most popular sport. He is over 6 feet, 2 inches, and over 200 lbs. When he started playing golf his nickname was “The Big Fijian.”

Singh turned to professional golf at 19, played on the Asian Golf Circuit and the European Tour, and then earned membership to the PGA Tour in 1993. He was named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year that same year.

Singh won three majors: the Masters in 2000 and the PGA Championship in 1998 and again in 2004. He won a total of 34 PGA Tour tournaments in all and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2005.

He won five tournaments on the PGA Tour Champions. His PGA Tour longevity, top 50 total earnings and total wins gave him a lifetime exemption on the PGA Tour, which he used to join the field in the 2026 Sony Open.

Over the years Singh was party to a number of controversies; here are a couple of them.

In 2013 he admitted using deer-antler spray, a performance-enhancing substance banned by the PGA Tour. Singh claimed he had not known it was banned. There were back-and-forth lawsuits by Singh and the PGA Tour, but both were eventually settled a few years later.

Another controversy surrounded Singh in 2003 at the Bank of America tournament at Colonial CC in Ft. Worth, Texas. Annika Sorenstam was scheduled to play in the event, and Singh was quoted as saying, “I hope she misses the cut … because she doesn’t belong out here.”

He said later to an Associated Press reporter that Sorenstam would be displacing some other struggling male player, for whom he had sympathies. About that incident Golf Digest wrote that Singh had become “pro golf’s bad guy.”

Sometime about 16 years ago, while nearing the end of his winning ways on the PGA Tour, Singh admitted to the press that he thought of himself as a “pretty bad” putter. He said that he subsequently fixed his putting and turned it around into the part of his game he thinks is one of the strongest.

He credited the improvement to changing his mindset, forcing and convincing himself to think of himself as a really “good putter.” One would think he read (and reread), “The Power of Positive Thinking,” by Norman Vincent Peale. For the last number of years, he has using a long “broomhandle” putter with a split-hand grip. It has apparently been working for him.

In November he won the 2025 Charles Schwab Championship on the PGA Tour Champions by making his final shot of the tournament – a 20-foot putt to win. He played very well at the Sony Open despite his 62 years, posting a 5-under par for the four days, and finishing tied for 40th.