By Travis Puterbaugh, Curator
In 2004, Vijay Singh had easily the best year of his career, and arguably one of the finest in golf history. The native of Fiji – already a two-time Major Champion with victories at the 1998 PGA Championship and 2000 Masters – took over the top spot of the Official World Golf Ranking, earning a tour-record $10,905,166 on the strength of nine tournament wins. The biggest among them, the PGA Championship, earned Singh his third Major Championship when he defeated Chris DiMarco and Justin Leonard in a three-hole playoff.
With nine wins on the season, Singh joined the elite company of Paul Runyan (1933), Byron Nelson 1945), Ben Hogan (1946, 1948) Sam Snead (1950) and Tiger Woods (2000) as the only golfers to win at least nine times in a season on the TOUR. For the first and only time in his career, Singh lead the TOUR with a scoring average of 68.84 to earn the Harry Vardon Award presented by the PGA of America. From 1999-2005, Tiger Woods dominated this category and Singh’s 2004 season is the only interruption to a streak that would see Woods win the award in six out of seven seasons.
