No happy tune for Singh
High note on 18, but not satisfied
NORTON - The short putt for birdie on the 18th hole gave Vijay Singh a silver lining, but he didn’t focus on it too much.
He was about as disappointed as he could allow himself to be after shooting a 4-under-par 67 in the first round at the
He shook hands, almost obligatorily, with playing partners Tim Petrovic and Mathew Goggin, and then walked swiftly from the final green to the scorer’s trailer.
He came out and surveyed the crowd, making sure the cameras didn’t need him and at the same time showing no particular interest in standing in front of them. He walked to the middle of a pack of autograph-seeking kids and grabbed a black hat. It was the object closest to him.
He wasn’t necessarily going through the motions, but he wasn’t necessarily making eye contact, either. It’s hard to put a number on how many signatures he handed out, but Singh stayed for as long as he felt he should have, then made a beeline past the clubhouse and straight to the practice range.
Singh shot a solid enough round to find himself in a pack of 11 golfers locked in 13th place. But he walked off the last green fully aware that his round could have been better. And while battling to gain a spot in next week’s BMW Championship (only the top 70 in the
In between the clubhouse and the range, he explained his scenario succinctly.
“There really is no pressure,’’ Singh said. “You create your own pressure. I just feel like I just need to play . . . If I play well, I’m in next week.’’
Then he laughed.
Singh’s track record at TPC Boston precedes him - wins last year and in 2004, and also a second and a fourth. Four holes into his afternoon round yesterday, it looked as if he was going to give the course another one of his annual surgical procedures.
He carved up the second, third, and fourth holes nicely, with three birdies.
He had a slight hiccup on the par-4 fifth, pushing his tee shot into a fairway bunker. But he got up and down for his fourth straight birdie, one of five he had on the front side.
“I played OK,’’ he said. “I could have shot a lot lower. I’m a little disappointed, but 4 under is 4 under.
“There’s three days to go. The course is getting a little firm. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I mean, I’m playing well. If I keep doing what I’m doing I’ll be OK.’’
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. 
