Vijay Singh

He also finished tied for 23rd at The Open Championship.

Vijay Singh (born 22 February 1963), nicknamed "the Big Fijian", is a Fijian professional golfer.

Singh turned professional in 1982.

Two years later, he won the 1984 Malaysian PGA Championship.

However, his career was plunged into crisis after he was suspended from the Asia Golf Circuit in 1985 over allegations he doctored his scorecard.

It was alleged that he lowered his score from one over to one under in order to make the cut, but Singh denies this, saying that in any case, it should only have resulted in disqualification from the event rather than a ban.

After investigation by the Tour of this and other alleged violations proved true, John Bender, Asian PGA Tour president, issued Singh a lifetime ban on Asian PGA Tour play.

Singh felt he had been more harshly treated because the marker was "the son of a VIP in the Indonesian PGA."

He then took a job at the Keningau Club in Sabah, Malaysia, before his move to the Miri Golf Club in Sarawak.

While this was a period of hardship for him, he continued to gain experience.

Singh saved the money he needed to resurrect his career and began to re-enter tournaments.

In 1988 he teamed up with a sponsor, Red Baron, which funded a trip to Africa to compete on the now-defunct Safari Circuit, an offshoot circuit of the European Tour.

Singh captured his first event, the 1988 Nigerian Open, locals cheered him loudly.

At the end of that year he entered the European Tour Qualifying school for the second consecutive year, and was successful on this occasion.

In 1989, Singh won his first European Tour title at the Volvo Open Championship in Italy and finished 24th on the European Tour Order of Merit, putting his early struggles firmly behind him.

He won four times in 1989, at the Volvo Open di Firenze, Ivory Coast Open, Nigerian Open and Zimbabwe Open.

He won on the European Tour again in 1990 and did so twice in 1992.

He also won several tournaments in Asia and Africa in this period.

Singh earned membership for the PGA Tour in 1993, winning his first tournament, the Buick Classic in a playoff over Mark Wiebe.

That victory led to his being named the 1993 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.

After being hampered with back and neck problems in 1994, he came back to win the Buick Classic again in 1995 as well as the Phoenix Open.

After playing well in 1996 (but with no victories), he won both the Memorial Tournament and the Buick Open in 1997.

In 1998, Singh was victorious at the PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington, playing a 70-66-67-68 over the four days (the 66 tied a course record) and earning him his first Major title.

He has won 34 events on the PGA Tour, which is the most by a player from outside of the United States, including three major championships: one Masters title (2000) and two PGA Championships (1998, 2004).

He is the first person of South Asian descent to win a major championship.

Vijay was the 12th man to reach the world No. 1 ranking and was the only new world No. 1 in the 2000s decade.

He followed this up by winning The Masters in 2000, with a three-stroke victory over Ernie Els.

Singh did not win on the PGA Tour in 2001, but finished the year with a Tour-best 14 top-10 finishes and was fourth on the money list with $3,440,829 for the year.

In 2002, he won at the Shell Houston Open at TPC at The Woodlands, setting a new tournament 72-hole scoring record with a 266, and at the Tour Championship, winning by two strokes over Charles Howell III.

Singh was the leading PGA Tour money winner in 2003, 2004 and 2008.

2003 proved to be a very successful year for Singh.

He won four tournaments, had 18 top-10 finishes and was the PGA Tour's money leader (and had the second-highest single-season total in PGA Tour history) with $7,573,907, beating Tiger Woods by $900,494, though Singh played 27 tournaments compared to Woods' 18 tournaments.

Singh also tied a 9-hole scoring record at the U.S. Open with a 29 on the back nine of his second round.

Singh reached world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking for 32 weeks in 2004 and 2005.

He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2006.

He also captured the FedEx Cup in 2008.

Singh recollected to reporters about his childhood: "When we were kids we couldn't afford golf balls so we had to make do with coconuts. My father used to say, 'Little Vijay, golf balls don't fall off trees you know,' so I found some that did!"

Growing up, he played snooker, cricket, football, and the island's most popular sport, rugby.

He is the son of Mohan Singh, an airplane technician who also taught golf.

Growing up, he admired the swing of Tom Weiskopf, using it as an early model for his own.