A Thought of Vijay Singh and How to Wear the Green Jacket | Weekend 9

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I call this Weekend 9. Think of it as a place to warm up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will have thoughts. We will have tips. We’ll have tweets. But only nine in all, though sometimes perhaps more and sometimes perhaps less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell part of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

Friday morning, Vijay Singh’s Instagram account posted a hype video.

It also had all the trimmings. One song (Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Lucky son.”). Some action. (Singh was shown ‘waving’ a medicine ball.) A few inspirational messages. (Over the video, one read: “Just a reminder for the new year…Choose process over results.” And the post description said this: “Your habits will outweigh your resolutions.”)

He seemed ready. Shoot, I felt ready after watching it.

You’d expect Singh to be. As first reported by Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press here (and explored further here by GOLF’s Alan Bastable), Singh is taking advantage of a PGA Tour career money exemption this year, meaning he was able to play events, plural – in his early 60s. (He’s 62 now and will be 63 next month.) Why does he do it? Maybe we learn that, maybe we don’t; Singh is yet to comment on the move. But you think he believes he’ll be competitive. While there are countless examples of athletes pushing themselves far past their prime, dimming their past exploits in the process, by most accounts, Singh is a proud man. In short, he probably wouldn’t do this on a whim.

Should he do it? There are of course sides. Regardless of where you stand on the benefits of the exemption, Singh is simply taking advantage of what he is given, and rules are rules. But that doesn’t mean you have to follow them, and we go back and forth. But for this space, I’ll leave that conversation there and note that others have opinions on the matter. Just type in ‘Vijay Singh’ in X and look.

There are some niceties. But clearly more fear (which, yes, also says something about the forum and the desire to complain rather than celebrate).

But what if Fred Couples, for example, did this?

That question was posted on our GOLF Slack channel this week, and the reasoning behind the question is a thought I’ve been fascinated with for a long time – and that is creating sympathy among athletes by the way they come across to some. Couples? He seems approachable – and is almost universally adored. And Singh? To that end, here is a paragraph from a few years ago, written by noted journalist Alan Shipnuck and published on this website:

Vijay is actually a secretly good interview, on the rare occasions you catch him in the right mood. His high-pitched giggle is one of the quiet pleasures of the golf beat. Unfortunately, his entire career was marked by a complicated/confrontational relationship with the press, which stemmed from the shady cheating incident that preceded him on the PGA Tour. (The final word on this subject will always be John Garrity classic for which he traveled to Fiji.) Let’s face it, Vijay never exuded any warmth or charisma between the ropes. Because he didn’t allow reporters to get to know him and tell his story, it was difficult for fans to have a stake in his success, or for companies to want to invest in him in the kind of advertising campaigns that can change public opinion. Vijay is one of golf’s biggest badasses. His run in the early aughts was epic. He may have earned our respect, but it’s largely his fault that he never got the love.

Could there be something else at play with the news about the use of the exemption? Possibly. Am I going too deep into this? Potential. Then I assume that the idea is interesting. Fan favorites get a pass every now and then. The others are examined more closely. Nothing new.

Still quite fascinating.

Plus, the time you spend thinking about it takes away from CCR and the gym.

Let’s see if we can find eight more items for weekend 9.

One takeaway for the weekend

2. Let’s go back to the court of public opinion.

This weekend we were set to play the opening rounds of the PGA Tour until the Tour announced in September that it would be canceling the Sentry event in Hawaii due to drought – and now there are loud rumors that the Tour may not return to the island at all starting next year. While I won’t go into the details here – this story here, from Dylan Dethier of GOLF, is good for that – what I discovered is mainly a love for the tournament. In other words, I haven’t seen or heard much that could erase it.

Me? I’ve long liked the idea that shortening the professional golf schedule creates anticipation, and therefore more interest. However, Hawaii screams special.

And it’s in prime time.

One takeaway from the week that was

3. Any thoughts on the LPGA signing on for its own TGL and the Chevron Championship moving the first women’s major to Memorial Park in Houston?

I’m sorry to say this.

I hate myself for typing it.

But hey, that’s Growing the Game!

But seriously, it’s good to get the product on TV screens. Playing at a muni is good. New commissioner Craig Kessler said he would work to build connections between the tour’s players and fans, and here that is happening.

An instructional tip for the weekend (for LeBron James)

4. I thought the video below was good. On the PGA Tour, a few professionals analyzed LeBron James’ swing.

Gary Neville, another co-host and former football star, said: “So you can’t keep the green jacket?”

McIlroy said: “No, it stays in the club. So it stays in your locker.”

Jill Scott, another co-host and former football star, said: “You should have worn it today.”

McIlroy said: “You know, I played in India a few weeks ago and it was the first time there was a green jacket in India. I brought it to Australia. I took it all over the world. And I wore it on Halloween. My daughter wanted to be Galinda from ‘Wicked’. So I thought, I’ll be the Wizard of Oz.”

Wright said, “Are there certain things you can’t do – people can’t touch it, no one else can put it on?”

McIlroy said: “Yes, there are a few. Yes, you have to sign a legal document to take it out of the club. And there are do’s and don’ts with it. You have to wear a certain shirt and you have to wear a club tie and you only wear dress shoes; you can’t wear trainers. It’s very…”

Carragher said with a laugh: “Just throw it on. Go for a crowd.”

Neville said: ‘They don’t mess with the rules at Augusta, do they?

McIlroy: “No, it is – but that’s what makes it such a great place. It’s like they know who they are and they stick to it. And it’s also one of the reasons they have one of the best brands in the sport. It’s because they are so meticulous and do everything in such a way, yes.”

McIlroy’s appearance on the show can be found below.

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A photo that interests me

6. I thought the photo was in the link here was good – and festive. The item in the photo was taken by Sydney Swanson of Wisconsin and the photo was shared by ironmountaindailynews.com.

An Instagram post that I enjoyed

7. I thought about the Instagram posts below were good. They were written by Jon Rahm and then shared on X by GOLF’s Subpar podcast after Rahm appeared on the show.

One more thing!

10. Hi! If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate it – and I’d like to ask a question of you, the loyal reader:

What would you like to see in this space in the future? Or from this space, in terms of a great story that you wish would be told? My email address is nick.piastowski@golf.com Please get in touch!

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