Why Vijay SIngh Will Win The Masters

For the next three days I will be randomly presenting different top-notch golfers and explaining why these guys have a chance to win the Masters over anyone else in the field. Mostly, this will just be stupid "stats" that really don't matter once the golfers tee it up Thursday morning. To recap, skip everything I'm about to write. Anyway, today's golfer is Vijay Singh.

Lets be honest, most American golf fans hate Vijay Singh. They hate his demeanor, his awkward lean-and-look-strange-after-swing thingy he's got going and they especially hate his "Tiger Who?" moment from the Presidents Cup a few years back. No matter how much everyone hates him, Vijay has been a top-three golfer in the world the last ten years, notching three majors and a ton of regular PGA events. Here is why Vijay has a good chance to win the Masters in 2008.

Been There, Done That - The thing that is a different in this generation of golf that can't be said in the other majors is that not a ton of guys have been fitted for the green jacket. Looking past guys named Tiger and Phil, Vijay is only one of three guys to win at Augusta since 2000. He beat out Ernie Els in 2000 and since then, has finished in the top-8 five of the last seven years.

Long Ball - As I said earlier I'm not a huge fan of the "big hitters are the only ones with a chance at Augusta" mentality, but they obviously have an advantage because of the length of the course. Vijay bombs it, and is never scared to pull out the driver. This is feast or famine approach, but if he's hitting the driver straight, he's tough to beat.

Vijay is a great putter-Ok, so he can't putt, we know that. As well as he hits the ball, if he isn't rolling the ball well he has never had a chance at any course. The other side of that is if his putter gets a tiny bit warm, he can blow people out of the water, even guys named Tiger. As long as he avoids the long-putter and can wiggle in a few knee-knockers, Vijay is a threat in Georgia.