MATCH REPORTS
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
ARCHIVES

Singh in the rain

The long, lonely hours of practice were merely a dress rehearsal for Vijay Singh.

Four-hour rounds were followed by four hours of practice. Then he would go back to his hotel room, re-arrange the furniture and put in even more work on his game. He traveled around the world, but his true home was the driving range.

On Sunday, the hardest working man in golf finally got a major payoff by winning the PGA Championship.

"I've practiced so hard for this," Singh said. "It's a dream come true. What I did out there was unbelievable."

With a lucky bounce out of the trees, a spectacular recovery from the woods and nerves of steel down the stretch in a steady rain, Singh shot a 2-under-par 68 and held off Steve Stricker at Sahalee Country Club in Redmond, Washington.

His hands slick more from nervousness than a steady rain, Singh two-putted for par on the 18th to finish at 9-under 271 for a two-stroke victory.

Steve Elkington was third at 274. Mark O'Meara, trying to become the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in a year, made an early charge but wound up in a tie for fourth, five strokes back.

It was the 10th time in 11 years that a player won his first major championship at the PGA. This one, fittingly, fell to a player whose name is Hindu for "Victory."

His wife and 8-year-old son, Qass, were waiting for him behind the 18th green. Singh waved to the crowd and pointed his putter in their direction when the final putt fell.

"Once I got the ball on the green, the feeling was ... 'I'm the winner. I'm the champion,'" Singh said. "Every year, you see somebody walk up 18 and you wonder if that's ever going to be you.

"I never expected it to happen like this."

The stage was Sahalee, the drama a duel with Stricker, two players in search of their first major who played well enough to put a worthy collection of challengers too far behind to catch up.

Singh built a two-stroke lead at the turn and never buckled, even when Stricker closed within one stroke and was on the verge of catching him.

Singh finally got some breathing room when he saved par from the bunker on No. 17 from about 18 feet and Stricker couldn't match him.

Stricker blasted out of the same bunker to 15 feet, but the par putt grazed past the left side of the hole.

"I was expecting him to make it, too," Singh said. "That was a sigh of relief because I could play a little bit more aggressive and I knew he needed a birdie to catch me if I made bogey."

All that stood between Singh and the Wanamaker Trophy was an accurate drive on the 475-yard finishing hole, and he split the middle.

Stricker, 157th on the PGA Tour in final-round scoring average, closed with a 70.

"I put up a good fight," Stricker said, choking back tears. "It just didn't happen."

Soft but steady rain fell throughout the morning, making it easier to attack the flags. But those who made a charge either started too far behind or made their move too late.

Elkington was the only one who got seriously close.

Just like in 1995, when his 64 was the lowest closing round ever by a PGA champion, Elkington stormed down the stretch and got to 7 under with a birdie on the par-3 17th.

But his drive found the right rough on the 18th and he took bogey.

Nick Price, trying to join Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen as a three-time PGA champion, tied the course record with a bogey-free 65. That was only good enough for a 276 and a tie for fourth with O'Meara and Frank Lickliter.

O'Meara, Davis Love III and Tiger Woods all had something to prove, and all of them had their chances.

O'Meara, impervious to the pressure of trying to match Hogan's trifecta, made eagle on No. 2 and got within two strokes with a birdie at the fifth before three straight bogeys took him out of the picture.

Love was trying to become the first player to win back-to-back at the PGA since Denny Shute in 1937. His chances were drowned in the water on No. 5 with a double bogey. He had three late birdies that put him at 277, along with Billy Mayfair.

Woods will have to wait until next year to squeeze another major out of his awesome talent. Starting five strokes back, Woods made up one stroke before making bogey on the three of the last four holes on the front side to take himself out of the picture.

Woods, who opened with a 66, failed to break par the rest of the week and played the par 5s only 1 under. He shot a 71 on Sunday and finished in a tie for 10th at 279.

Match play ended at the PGA Championship in 1957, but Stricker and Singh resurrected it on a final day that took as many turns as the tree-lined fairways of Sahalee.

They were tied at 7 under and had a four-stroke lead to start the day. Both had said they couldn't worry about the other in case someone emerged from back in the pack. Eight of the previous 12 PGA champions had all rallied from off the lead in the final round.

But it was clear early on it was a two-man race.

Stricker hooked his 3-wood into the trees on No. 2, a 507-yard par 5 guarded by water in front. He was 10 yards past Singh, who was in the fairway with a 3-wood in his hand, 263 yards from the pin.

"Are you going to hit?" Stricker asked.

"Still thinking," Singh replied.

Stricker, trying to punch into the fairway with tree limbs forming a tunnel only 6 feet high, caught the trees and found more trouble. Singh promptly put the 3-wood in the bag and laid up.

Stricker barely escaped disaster when his fourth shot from 175 yards in the rough barely cleared the water, setting up a two-putt bogey. And he escaped disaster again when he hit in the water on the par-3 ninth, only to hit his third shot to within 4 inches for another bogey.

From there, the race was on.

The last two majors have taken a peculiar twist -- Lee Janzen's ball that somehow dropped from the tree on the fifth hole at the U.S. Open, Mark O'Meara's ball at Royal Birkdale that a spectator found and then picked up.

For Singh, it was a tree -- what else? -- on the 11th hole, where the green is guarded by two huge trees that serve as goal posts.

His shoulders slumped when his second shot headed for the right, but the ball bounced around and kicked out onto the front of the green, 20 feet away for a two-putt birdie.

"Kind of fortunate there," Singh said with a smile.

Stricker responded with a low, delicate bump under the trees to 6 feet and made the birdie to stay two back at No. 11, and closed within one when Singh missed a short par putt on the next hole.

Singh gave up a stroke when he missed a 4-foot par putt on the next hole, but refused to buckle under the Sunday pressure of a major.

He saved par from the bunker at No. 13, and played a hard hook out of the trees on No. 14 onto the green for a two-putt par. And when Stricker stuck his approach within 3 feet for birdie on No. 15, Singh answered with a shot within 6 feet, also making the birdie.

"I hit a bad shot on 12, another bad shot on 13 and when I hit my tee shot on 14, my caddie said, 'Hey, you can do better than this. If you keep this up, you're going to lose this thing," Singh said. "I concentrated a little harder on what I was doing."

Stricker, who recovered from a disastrous 1997 season when he struggled through equipment changes, couldn't reach down and make the putt on No. 17 that would have kept him within one shot of the lead.

Singh, who won for the sixth time in America and 24th time around the globe, earned $540,000 and ended a steak of five straight majors won by American players. He also kept the Americans from sweeping the majors for the first time since 1982.