Vijay Singh qualifies for the Open Championship but likely to stay back
Vijay Singh might have qualified for the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s at Sandwich but unfortunately the 48-year-old Fijian will not be able to participate in the event owing to his injury at Aronimink Golf Club at the AT&T National last week.
Singh had withdrawn from the tournament in Philadelphia when his back pain soared after the second round and decided to call it a day at Aronimink. He had shot rounds of 68 and 70 at one of the most difficult par-70 courses on the tour, trailing the leader
K.J.Choi by just five strokes.
Singh has been battering poor form and injuries for several years. He did not show up for the US Open Sectional Qualifiers, bringing an end to his 67 consecutive major appearances.
Currently ranked number 63rd in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), Singh was not eligible to play at the third major of the season and was relying heavily on a strong finish at Aronimink. After losing all hopes to get a spot in the Open at Sandwich,
Singh got lucky on Monday, July 4, when the organizers announced his qualification for the event.
For the current winner of the season, Rory McIlroy (US Open winner), Charl Schwartzel (Masters Winner), and K.J.Choi (Players Championship winner), were exempt from qualifying and past champions Nick Faldo and Greg Norman have decided to opt out of the tournament.
Singh qualified along with four other players including JB Holmes, Webb Simpson, Steve Marino and Japan’s Yuta Ikeda.
Singh, despite of his whooping 67 appearances in major events, never went over to win the Open Championship in his career. The title remained all the more elusive given that he posted a joint second for the 2003 installment of the event and had another two
top-ten finishes in his 22 attempts to lift the Claret Jug. He won the Masters in 2000 with a three-stroke lead over runner-up Ernie Els and posted two PGA Championship wins in 1998 and 2004. Singh, also known as “the Big Fijian” originally hails from Fiji
but currently resides in Ponte Vedra Beach Florida.
Singh has recently finished for a joint 43rd in the Traveler’s Championship on PGA Tour despite of his burgeoning injuries which have caused him immensely in the past few years. The veteran has not won a single event since his last victory on
the PGA Tour in 2008 when he won Deutsche Bank Championship taking over Mike Weir by a whooping five strokes. He also won the Bridgestone Invitational on the European Tour and the Barclays Scottish Open the same year.
Singh’s 67 consecutive major appearances is the longest streak ever held by any player. He is also the Goodwill Ambassador for his home country Fiji.
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