New attitude on putting leads Singh to fourth Barclays win

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PARAMUS, N.J. -- We should have seen it coming.

A smooth little third-round 66. Three steps out of the scoring trailer and a hard right. Straight to the range.

Classic Veej.

Whatever wasn't working needed to be fixed. All we can assume is Vijay Singh stood down there until it was. And, that done, he worked a little harder.

Nothing surprises us about him anymore except when he's not in contention. So when his name floated along the leaderboard Sunday, when he stayed right there in a traffic jam of players that resembled rush hour on the George Washington Bridge, we should have taken the hint.

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Vijay Singh won The Barclays for a record fourth time on Sunday.

Singh's last 10 starts

At The Barclays

Year Finish Score to par 2008 Win -8 2007 CUT +4 2006 Win -10 2005 T-7 -3 2004 T-4 -10 2003 T-18 -6 2002 CUT +3 2001 T-6 -10 2000 T-24 +1 1999 T-5 -5

And when we didn't? He played the prettiest four holes you'll ever see to force a playoff at Ridgewood Country Club, then beat good buddy Sergio Garcia and Kevin Sutherland in a two-hole playoff for The Barclays title. His fourth Barclays title if you're counting -- no one else has won it more than twice -- and the first leg of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

"It was a tough day,'' said Singh, who went head-to-head with Garcia when Sutherland was eliminated on the first hole. "It wasn't easy to get close to the hole, so birdie was difficult to come by. It was drying out really, really a lot, and you've got to play almost conservative on some holes.

"...It was a tough day, but it was a great playoff, though. I enjoyed that.''

Ya think?

While Garcia was grabbing most of the attention -- and a one-shot lead for much of the day -- Singh, his left forearm bandaged because of tendonitis, was cruising under the radar. Focusing on his game. Not what was happening around him. Or in front of him.

Seven pars, a bogey and a birdie on the front. Five pars, a birdie and a bogey and then... magic.

The Hall of Famer came thisclose to an eagle on the 71st hole of regulation, then rolled in the birdie to get to 8 under to force the playoff. That done, he poured in a long one on the first playoff hole to one-up Garcia's just slightly longer putt.

On the second hole -- the 17th -- he played it the same way he did in regulation, with a look at eagle, but all he needed when Garcia played two out of the trees and came up short on a chip, was a tap-in birdie.

But make no mistake. He made a serious run at a 19-foot eagle.

Not bad considering he thought he had hit his approach too far. And not bad for a guy whose putter has let him down in the past and who had let that creep into his mind. This week he just convinced himself he was the best putter -- even though Garcia led the field in putting average.

"I think through the past weeks and months and years, with the media talking about my putting and writing about my putting and people talking about my putting and people want to help me, I must have had hundreds of letters and phone calls and all saying that they can fix my putting,'' said Singh, who is now 8-4 in playoffs. "You know, at the end of the day, it kind of gets to your head that you're not a good putter.

"So I made a point after last week that, you know, I'm going to change that attitude, and I believed in myself that I'm the best putter, and I came out here with a different attitude, and I putted great this week. If I keep doing this, I'm going to win a lot more golf tournaments."

After Sunday, who's going to argue? Singh was in the long-time-no-see file until three weeks ago. It had been more than a year since he'd won an event although he did start 2008 strong with four top 5s, including a playoff loss at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Now, he's won twice in August -- the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational was the first -- and with this win he grabbed the inside track to the $10 million prize at the end of the FedExCup rainbow.

The irony? Singh missed the cut at the British Open the week before he won the Bridgestone Invitational. Then he missed the cut at both the PGA Championship and the Wyndham Championship before winning here. And no, it's not a coincidence.

He simply didn't like the greens at Oakland Hills, site of the PGA Championship, nor those at Wyndham's Sedgefield Country Club.

"I hated to putt on Oakland Hills,'' he said. "I thought that was one of the worst greens I've ever putted on. If you have a mindset on seeded greens that big and that ugly, we should never play it really. I'm sure Padraig (Harrington, who won the PGA Championship) loves the greens, but he played well.

"You should never be rewarded for bad shots, and those greens were kind of like that. If you miss it on the wrong side of the green, you can catch one of those big slopes, and you're nowhere near the hole. From tee to green, I think it's an incredible golf course, but the greens are not the best, I don't think so. I didn't think (Oakland Hills architect) Donald Ross wanted that.''

And last week? He didn't feel good on the greens, either.

"I played really well, and just nothing happened,'' he said. "So again, the greens were huge, so it was a putting event there and every hole had OBs left and right, and I don't like that.''

Here, this A.W. Tillinghast course fit his eye the way Barclays' previous venue -- Westchester Country Club where he won his first three Barclays -- did.

"Westchester was a good golf course,'' he said. "This tops Westchester. Every single player out there absolutely enjoyed this golf course. Tee to green, it's great, and on the greens.

"My trainer walked on Wednesday and he came across that fifth green and said, "I thought it was a tee box." That's how small it was. It doesn't have to be a long haul to make it difficult, and this golf course has all of those characteristics.''

And the bad news for the FedExCup field? He likes the next three venues too -- TPC Boston (Deutsche Bank Championship), Bellerive Country Club (BMW Championship) and East Lake (THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola). In fact, he's won Deutsche Bank and THE TOUR Championship.

So, yes, winning the FedExCup is in the back of his mind. Especially now that he's back winning events and leading the points race by 5,125 points over Garcia, one of those players who has won Barclays twice.

And, yes, the way those two played, thoughts of a two-man race here has to be in the back of a lot of minds.

"Definitely everybody that's playing the FedExCup wants to win,'' said Singh, who's won 33 PGA TOUR events in his career, including three majors. "I mean, I want to win as much as anybody else. But that doesn't prove that I'm going to win it. I have to go out there and do it. That's what I'm looking forward to.

"...I've got a great start, and I just have to go ahead and play hard for the next three other events. The guys behind me, the way the system works now, the next guy that wins can just overtake you. It's going to be tough. But I'm ahead and I've got a head start, so I just have to go out there and play consistent, solid golf and hopefully win at the end."

So, someone asked, what would winning the FedExCup mean?

Singh paused and smiled.

"Well, I'm going to answer that question,'' he said, "when I win it.''