Vijay Singh has made 648 career PGA Tour starts. That doesn’t sniff the load of Mark Brooks, who made a record 803 tournament appearances, but it’s still a ton of golf.
Singh’s first tour start came while Bush 41 was still in office, at the 1992 Memorial, where the then-unknown 29-year-old Fijian played with a sponsor’s exemption and tied for 7th. Over the next three-plus decades, Singh compiled a resume that elevated him to a place among the all-time greats: 34 wins, 28 runner-up finishes, a staggering nearly 80% field goal percentage, and — generational wealth alert! — more than $71 million in course earnings, which ranks 6th on the career earnings list behind only Tiger, Rory, Scottie and the two Gilded J’s (Justin Rose and Jim Furyk).
That latest accolade comes with a pleasure and, until this week, little-discussed perk: a golden ticket to the Tour. As decreed in the tournament eligibility rules, players who have lost tournament status but are among the top 50 all-time winners may regain full membership for a season of their choice. The best get out of jail free card.
This year, Singh, who turns 63 next month, is cashing in.
A 63-year-old golfer who will soon be rejoining the world’s most competitive tournament isn’t as outrageous as, say, the hypothetical Michael Jordan (who is 62) resigning with the Bulls or Roger Clemens (who is 63) returning to an MLB mound, but it’s still a comeback to marvel at, especially in an era in which the Tour has gotten thinner and the opportunities to play fewer.
But rules are rules, and starting with the Sony Open in Honolulu next week, Singh will be back walking the Tour fairways for the first time (non-Masters division) since the 2021 Honda Classic, where he shot 74-73 and missed the cut. Singh’s last cut on Tour came at the 2020 Memorial, where he tied for 62nd. The last time he played 10 or more events in a season was in 2017-18.
Singh will not have carte blanche playing privileges; designated events will, of course, be off limits. But a Tour spokesman said Singh “is likely to qualify for the vast majority of full-field events” in 2026. The spokesman did not know how many of those tours Singh intends to attend.
Singh has struggled with injuries in recent years, particularly a weak back. In April, he retired from Mastersciting an undisclosed injury that snapped his streak of 31 consecutive Masters starts. In 20 appearances on the PGA Tour Champions last year, he had 6 top 10s and finished 23rd on the money list.
Singh is known for his tireless work ethic and marathon sessions, and he still has pop; His average driving distance of 292.4 yards in 2025 ranked 16th on the Championship circuit. But there’s a long time and then there’s a long PGA Tour. That driving average would have ranked 164th on the PGA Tour in 2025, a few spots higher than how Lucas Glover and Russell Henley.
Singh knows what he is up against. He said as much when he played in the 2019 Players Championship as a 57-year-old. “Playing the regular tournament is a lot more pressure, I think, to play well,” he said. “There’s a lot of work that goes into getting out there and being ready to play. I practice more when I play the regular tournament. The preparation is a little different.
“Playing the Champions Tour, it’s much more relaxing for me. When I started playing there, I don’t want to come back here. It’s so easy to play there, to have practice rounds in the cart and pro-am in the cart. It’s a full four days here, plus two extra days of playing and walking.”
The news of Singh’s return to the junior lads’ tournament, where he will play against opponents four decades his junior, has drawn the ire of at least some members of the peanut gallery on Twitter, who have claimed that Singh will, essentially on a loop, take precious game points away from more deserving or needy players. Singh faced similar criticism when he entered a Korn Ferry Tour event in 2020; so intense was the blow that he recoiled.
In response to Singh’s return in 2026, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said his beef isn’t so much with Singh as with the exemption itself. “That’s what happens when you give up or give too much power to the players.” Chamblee wrote in X. “If the PGA Tour is going to pretend to be a sport based on meritocracy, you can’t allow players to cash in on their performances of a decade or decades ago, through current exemptions. The sport must always answer the question: why are you here instead of someone else? And the answer can never be because I was great ten or twenty years ago.”
Can Singh still be great? Very unlikely. Can he still make cuts? Of course. He did so at the 2024 Masters, where he opened 75-73 before a third-round 82 derailed him. The oldest player to make a PGA Tour cut in an individual stroke play event is Sam Snead, who, at age 67, played the weekend in the 1979 Westchester Classic. Jack Nicklaus and Fred Funk both made PGA Tour cuts at 64, and Tom Watson did so at 65. On the right course, in the right week, it’s not inconceivable that Singh could find himself in the lead.
If he is not, you will surely find him in range.
;)
