It was a proud moment for Asian golf when Vijay Singh dethroned Tiger Woods to become the world?s number one golfer after winning the Deutsche Bank Championship. Indeed, Vijay Singh has the distinction of being the first Asian to accomplish this achievement. On Sunday, he further increased his lead in the world rankings by winning the Bell Canadian Open, his seventh win of the season.

The 41-year old Fijian who ended Tiger Woods? record reign of 264 weeks at the top is the 12^th player to become World No. 1 since the rankings were introduced in 1986. After his latest win, Vijay Singh?s season earnings have accumulated to a staggering US$8,699,566.

Yes indeed, Vijay Singh has certainly come a long way since in days in Asia when he earned minimum wage teaching in East Malaysia. After turning professional in 1982 he played in the APGC’s Asian Tour and in 1984 won the Malaysian PGA Championship, his first professional title.

Unfortunately, his professional career was cut short after a score-card incident and he was banned from the tour. Vijay decided to take up a teaching position at the Keningau Golf Club and later moved to the Miri Golf Club in Sarawak, East Malaysia teaching lumberjacks and oil riggers the finer aspects of the game.

When not teaching, Vijay spend his time hitting golf balls, as many as a 1,000 to 2,000 either in the hot blazing sun or in the twilight of the night, sometimes on the driving range, sometimes on the beach. Members at these clubs who become friends with Vijay remembered his long ball and admired his innate determination as well as his hard working disposition.

Finally it was a couple of these friends that gave him a break and sponsored his way to the European Tour Qualifying School. From there on, Vijay has never looked back as he went on to make good finishers; then later win events, first on the Sunshine Tour and later, on the European Tour and finally the US PGA Tour.

But Vijay Singh never forgot his early days in Malaysia. In 2001, the Masters defending champion, returned to Malaysia, visited with his friends and family (his wife, Ardena Seth, is Malaysian) and won the Asian PGA – European Tour joint sanctioned Malaysian Open title. It was a fitting homecoming for the Fijian who once considered Malaysia home.

Vijay Singh’s position on the world rankings improved from the teens to the top ten in 1998 when he won his first major – the US PGA Championship at Sahalee. Since then, he has steadily climbed up the rankings to the top three and several time came close to toppling Tiger Woods but the latter hung on until the fateful day when Vijay won the battle at the Deutsche Bank Championship.