“Throwback Thursday” With Vijay Singh & Retief Goosen
Feb 19, 2015; Pacific Palisades, CA, USA; Vijay Singh looks on on the 10th green during the first round at Riviera Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
“Throwback Thursday” isn’t just a social media term, it was a theme for the first round of the Northern Trust Open. Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh got off their rocking chairs and fired twin 66s to sit on top of the leaderboard with four others. With five majors between the two of them they are both closer to being Champions Tour regulars rather than PGA Tour elite.
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Both Singh and Goosen are stoic and shutoff. One of them barely speaks and when the other speaks he tends to aggravate someone. Singh is known for his thirty-four victories to go with his three majors. The guy never looks happy and will hit range balls till his hands fall off. He tinkers with this and tries that in hopes of finding a perfect method to compete that week. It’s almost as if he’s golf’s mad scientist. Emphasis on “mad.”
Singh was once the number one player in the world, and that was when Tiger Woods could still chip. He was never number one in the gallery though. There’s been cheating scandals, bizarre comments and social stands that have prevented Sigh from capturing the hearts of golf fans everywhere. He just rarely comes off as a likable guy. Sure Tiger can be useless and crude in a media session, but least he looks like he cares and even cracks a smile. It’s tough to say the same for Vijay. He‘s just going to do his own thing and doesn’t care what we think about it. On Thursday his method to success was real simple.
"“I kept my ball in play, hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens and when I did miss, I chipped it real close,” he said. “It was a comfortable round.”"
Short and straight to the point; that’s what he’s all about. An all business, almost cranky mood is something we’ve come to expect from him. It’s who he is and as he starts making laps in his fifties that will not change and according to Goosen things may only be getting more difficult for him.
"“The last couple of years, since what’s happened, has probably drained him a little bit,” Goosen presumed. “Vijay wasn’t as chirpy as he normally would be on the golf course today, because he does have quite a sarcastic sense of humor. He seems a little bit down on himself at the moment, but it didn’t affect his game today, which is good.”"
If you think Vijay is a closed book, Goosen is a blank canvas. To hear him string sixty-two words together is almost as surprising as his five under round today. He’s not a curmudgeon like his playing partner; he’s just someone you don’t hear much from. The guy strolls around a golf course with a poker face that could do serious damage in Vegas. Sure he’s got his two U.S. Opens and nearly had a third, but there’s just so little we know about him. That’s because no matter what the state of his game is, he always seems to be on autopilot.
Both of these guys could be considered golf’s enigmas. They have never been the leader of galleries or favorites in the media. You can’t take away their career accomplishments and the first round at Riviera turned back the clock a little bit. It wasn’t exactly Jack Nicklaus at the 1986 Masters but it was still nostalgic. The question now is how will you remember these guys? Do you even want to? That’s a question you can only answer, because they definitely won’t tell you.
All quotes from GolfChannel.com