The 2026 season started with Vijay Singh embark on a return to the PGA Tour. That attempt was short-lived, though the age of 63 years he found a way to make his mark over the year anyway.
On Sunday, Singh captured his first win in over three years SAS Championship of PGA Tour Champions.
After his final round of the tournament, Singh admitted, “It’s nice to win when you haven’t won in a while.” But that’s not the only reason this victory was significant.
As the three-time major winner revealed this weekend, he was playing the SAS Championship with a new caddy on the bag. For what? Because his former caddy had “lynched” Singh on Tuesday, a few days before the tournament.
Vijay Singh wins SAS Championship with last-minute replacement caddy
After Singh holed in his par putt on the 18th hole at Prestonwood Country Club on Sunday night, closing out a two-shot victory, one of the first things he did was hug his caddy, Wayne De Haas.
Turns out the hug was only five days away.
On Saturday night before the final round, Singh revealed that his previous caddy he had “lynched” him on the Tuesday of tournament week. De Haas, who had worked with Singh before, started as a replacement caddy shortly before the start of the event.
“Well, my caddy shot me this Tuesday. I thought it was a little bit — I had too much on him,” Singh said in his press conference after the third round. “It’s good to have Wayne back. We’ve been working together for a while. Just comfortable. You do it on the tee, you don’t have to think too much. And he does most of the thinking, you just have to hit it. It’s pretty good, I’m glad to have him back.”
Singh was much happier when he and De Haas carried their momentum on Sunday, shooting a three-under 69 to finish two shots ahead. Ernie Els.
You can imagine that De Haas feels just as happy, if not more so. He is a former professional golfer himself and has caddied for many professionals since his own retirement, including Els and Cameron Young.
But recently, De Haas “lost his job” as a Korn Ferry Tour caddy, as Singh shared Sunday night. When Singh’s caddy dropped him off Tuesday, the professor called De Haas to see if he was interested in carrying his bag. The twist of fate worked out better than either could have imagined.
“Totally a coincidence. (De Haas) lost his job on Korn Ferry and my caddy fired me this week, and I called Wayne and I said, ‘Hey, are you ready?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ “It was a lot easier to play golf with someone who really knew what he was doing.”
In addition to his three major titles, Singh captured 34 PGA Tour wins in his Hall of Fame career. Sunday’s win pushed his PGA Tour Champions win total to six. After a three-year wait, he admitted he was happy to return to his winning ways this week.
“I haven’t won in a while. It’s always nice to win no matter where you play, what tournament it is. It’s nice to win when you haven’t won in a while. I think I haven’t won in – I don’t know how many years I haven’t won, four, five years,” said Singh. “This feels good right now. I hope it will push me for the next events to come and for next year.”
As for what led to his win drought (besides his new caddy), Singh pointed to a recent “rededication” to working on his game after a period of “lazy practice.”
“I think I’ve kind of rededicated myself a little bit. I’ve been very lazy in practice. I’ve been working, but I haven’t practiced much,” Singh explained. “So I think I’m going to start doing that, which I started doing again and I think that’s why I won today, I guess. Just the extra work that got me through.”
With his victory, Singh moved up to 33rd in the Schwab Cup standings. He and the rest of the senior circuit will now embark on the three-event Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, culminating in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in November.
