More than a two-horse race

TIGER to capture his third major of the season - or Vijay to spoil the Woods party and successfully defend his US PGA Championship.

That’s the slant to most of the pre-tournament focus here in New Jersey prior to the first round of the 87th PGA at Baltrusrol this morning. But those who believe this could turn into a two horse race are not dealing in reality.

True, Woods and Singh have raised the bar just a little this year and the third ranked Ernie Els is out of the equation because of his knee injury. But after a relatively quiet year Retief Goosen demonstrated his current well being last weekend with a fine win in the International in Denver.

Having gone six majors without success after his apparently seminal win in the 2004 Masters, Phil Mickelson will never have a greater incentive to prove he is more than a one major wonder.

And that’s still only the tip of the iceberg. Kenny Perry could be a very attractive proposition at around 50/1, the belief being that his game is ideally suited to the Baltusrol course, even if it does stretch to 7,392 yards.

What about US Open champion Michael Campbell at 66/1 and there are several others capable of getting into the picture, not least Ireland’s Padraig Harrington (33/1) and Darren Clarke (50/1).

However, it is only inevitable that the Woods-Singh rivalry oversees all else and neither will be unhappy at yesterday’s scorching sunshine which should dry out the fairways and greens, thus putting a greater premium on accurate striking and solid putting.

While Woods deserves his favouritism, although not at such short odds of 2/1 or 5/2, Singh must have gained a massive psychological boost over his rival by the manner of victory when they went head to head on the Saturday of the recent Buick Classic.

The Fijian’s often testy relationship with the media didn’t prevent him from being openly candid about his reaction to that particular clash.

“I was fired up before going out to play that day and got off to just the kind of start you want,” he declared. “I birdied the first three holes and shot 29 on the front nine. Whether it’s Tiger or anyone else, that is going to do the job. It was everything to do with the putter. I started using it that week and the ball just started going in and I led the putting stats.”

The mind gurus who exert such influence over the players these days wouldn’t allow their men to admit that their putting or any other part of their game was malfunctioning. The truth, however, remains that Singh putted very poorly for much of the year, a point well made by the one he missed to allow Padraig Harrington steal the Honda Classic.

And if he has rectified his problems on the greens, then Woods and the rest should look out. Either way, you have to sympathise with him if he feels that he hasn’t achieved the credit he deserves for all he has done.

“I don’t know what I have to do to win you guys over,” he said. “I’m a player. I’m an athlete. I go out there to play golf tournaments and I speak my mind. I’m very honest about it. I’m not a fake like many guys out there. I do not say things to please you guys. In my mind, I don’t feel under-appreciated. I’m not really concerned about how you guys feel about that but in my mind, I feel like I’ve achieved. And I feel great about my game, myself and what I’ve done. If you just look back and see where I’ve come from, I think that’s a big achievement.”

Sensitive individual that he is, Singh will have noted with quiet satisfaction that Woods is keeping a close eye on him this week. When Tiger was asked about the failure of the “Big Five”, himself obviously excepted, to contend in recent times, he immediately pointed out that: “Vijay’s done all right, you know, three top tens. Goose played great in the US Open, I mean he was leading by four shots going into the final round.”

And as for Paul McGinley’s strident criticism of the way length rather than subtlety is the yardstick for the setting up of courses for major championships, Woods clearly couldn’t care less. He insisted that “I don’t see why it will stop. The golf balls are only going to get faster and longer. Guys are going to get bigger and stronger. Agronomy helps as well. If you get the fairways hard and fast, it’s amazing how much shorter a golf course can play. Pinehurst was playing 7,300 yards for the US Open and we thought it was a very short golf course because it was playing fast.”

I’m not going down the two-horse race road and believe Goosen is capable of atoning for Pinehurst and that Kenny Perry sounds like the kind of player who could emulate other recent low key PGA champions like Shaun Micheel, Rich Beem, David Toms and Mark Brooks.

And still, in the final analysis, Vijay is the one with most of the cards over the next four days.