Change Agent

By Bob Verdi
Photos By Stuart Franklin/Getty Images August 8, 2008

Between waves of drug tests, golf was played last week at Firestone CC South, and played with gritted teeth by several of the game's elite performers. One of them, Vijay Singh, had been written off and out of victory scripts by some experts, which might have made Sunday's narrow triumph in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational that much sweeter. But when you log so many hours attempting to perfect a craft, it doesn't leave much time for leisure reading or TV viewing. "If people were thinking I was done, I really don't care," said Singh. "I don't pay attention to that. And if people thought I didn't have the desire anymore, then why do I do all that I do to get better?"

At 45, however, Singh admits losing confidence. "But we all do, sooner or later, regardless of age," he went on. While at relative peace with the other 13 clubs in his bag, Singh has been at war with his putter, or putters. He dumped the short stick after the British Open and had returned to the belly version upon embarking, fingers and hands crossed, on this stretch of six consecutive tournaments. Results have been mixed, but as he reminds himself and others, "The ones you make help you forget the ones you miss."

Thus, Singh's freshest memories of Sunday's taut fourth round will be therapeutic fuel entering the PGA Championship, the final major in a year that he won't categorize as his finest. Singh converted a 4½-footer for par on No. 17 and then made a 3½-footer for par on the 18th to complete a 68 for 10-under 270. one fewer than Stuart Appleby and Lee Westwood. The conquest was Singh's first since March 2007, an eternity bordering on an aberration for an enduring heavyweight whose 32 career triumphs are the most by an international player in PGA Tour history.

Singh passed Harry Cooper, pretty fancy company, and also Phil Mickelson, another superstar anxious to build momentum toward the season's homestretch. The left-hander had it going, but it is unlikely any of those ubiquitous urine sample collectors who watched the concluding hour will suspect him of using performance-enhancing substances. He bogeyed three of the last four holes to tumble from the lead. He wound up with a 70 and a share of fourth with Retief Goosen at 272. "I'm turning 63s and 64s into 70s," said Mickelson, who, like Singh, wanted desperately to at least reach détente with his putter. Phil the Thrill was thrilled about Firestone's greens as soon as he sampled them, and he had that bounce to his step for much of the week.

At the end, however, Phil could have landed his new jet plane on his lower lip. He bunkered his tee ball on the par-3 15th, drove it into the fairway sand on No. 17, and his wayward rocket on No. 18 evoked shady recollections of Winged Foot. "I thought I had to birdie 17 or 18, and I didn't," groaned Mickelson. Still it was overall an uplifting trip for Mickelson and his swing maven, Butch Harmon, except for that instance Friday night at an Akron Aeros' baseball game. A fan leaned over and asked Harmon, "Aren't you that world famous instructor, Bruce Fleisher?" Unfortunately for Butch, Mickelson was within listening range so rest assured this story will have an extended shelf life.

With numerous players being detained to supply bodily fluids—"I thought we were being tested one by one, not 10 by 10," quipped Sergio Garcia—Singh and Mickelson paired off in a spiffy anchor twosome Saturday. Crowds had been thin, but not for the weekend, not with those two protagonists who came out swinging after not shaking hands. The afternoon was thoroughly entertaining. Mickelson had 68, and Singh 69 to join a three-way scrum at the top at eight-under 202 with Westwood, who was ranked 266th in the world five years ago but would have vaulted to No. 4 with a victory. During his round, Singh twice flipped clubs in distress, a message to those who wondered whether his fire was extinguished. His body English certainly was not that of a man who thought he might never win again, either.