It's been a tough couple of months for Vijay Singh since he won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. When he won in February, the golf world buzzed that the Fijian was the hottest player on the planet and it looked as if nothing was going to stop him from possibly dethroning Tiger Woods. But a combination of problems -- a putter that suddenly went cold and mental fatigue -- did him in. He missed the cut at the Buick Invitational, finished T24th at the Nissan Open, T17th at the Match Play Championship, T31st at Bay Hill and T13th at the Players. The talk on Vijay changed from who he was going to beat next to how he was scrambling just to make the cut.

Things began to change for Vijay after he opened the Masters with rounds of 75-73 to just make the cut. Over the weekend, he started hitting the ball more consistently and began making putts again. Singh shot 69-69 Saturday and Sunday at Augusta, the same scores as Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els; in fact, all three had the lowest weekend scores of anyone in the field.

After taking a week off, Singh arrived the Shell Houston Open knowing his game was back. He was also playing a course known as favoring long hitters, Singh's strong suit. Redstone was playing hard and fast during the practice rounds, which should have benefited Singh. However, he didn't take advantage of it, with a first-round 74. Then Singh received a break, in the form of an early morning tee time Friday. He was able to post a 66 before rains wrecked havoc on the tournament.

Until this year, the Shell Houston Open had great weather in the last decade or so. Before it was moved out of its May dates, it had always always hampered by poor weather. In fact, between 1972 and 1993, there were eight major rain delays, as shown below:

Over the weekend, play was interrupted four times. The first occurred on Friday afternoon; from there on, it was nothing but terrible weather. In between rain delays, the course went from being a haven for long hitters to nothing more than a test of survival. That brought short hitters such as Scott Hoch into the mix. The poor weather also helped Vijay, who didn't record a hole over par in his final 36 holes.

For Singh, the victory is his second of the year and he is within $180,000 of catching Mickelson in the money race. More importantly, it puts him even closer to Tiger in the Official World Golf Ranking. As we head into spring season, you have to wonder if Singh is on the verge of dominating the Tour for the next several months, especially as Tiger in a major swing funk. We could possibly see Vijay get very close to uprooting Woods' run at the number-one spot by the end of the year. We also know that no matter how good of a year a player is having, it's not complete without a major win. You know that Vijay will be chopping at the bit to do that in one of the three remaining majors this year.

KEYS TO VICTORY

Vijay Singh: It is very easy to see how Vijay won this tournament: his play from tee to green was flawless. Now, in my preview I told you that only long hitters need apply to win this tournament -- not only was Singh the longest driver of the week, he was T3rd in driving accuracy, missing only 14 fairways. This helped him in hitting greens -- he only missed 11 for the week, tied with Heath Slocum in Tucson for most greens hit for the year.

Vijay's putting wasn't as impressive. He took 121 putts, very high when you consider that of all the PGA Tour winners, it's the highest in a 72-hole event since Tiger took 123 to win the 2002 U.S. Open. Vijay also holds the distinction of winning a tournament with a four-putt, which he had on the seventh hole on Friday. That was also his last over-par hole for the tournament.

Singh also only had 19 one-putt greens, his worst performance pf the year. Still, you have to cut him some slack, since he did chip in three times during the week. Other highs for Vijay: His opening 74 was the highest opening round by a winner since Mark O'Meara shot a first-round 74 in the 1998 Masters.

You also have to credit Vijay's patience. He played only eight holes on Saturday and Sunday and was forced to play 24 holes on Monday. So it's no surprise that Vijay was also the last player to win a rain-delayed Monday finish, the John Deere Classic last September.

Singh's stats (with rank in parentheses):

Fairways hit: 41 of 56 (T3rd)
Driving average: 318.3 (1st)
Greens hit: 61 of 72 (41st) 
Putts: 121 (30.25 a rd) (T37th)
Putting breakdown:
0 putt greens: 3
1 putt greens: 19
2 putt greens: 49
4 putt green: 1
Eagles: 1	
Birdies: 15 (T8th)
Scrambling: 7 of 11 (18th)

Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.

E-mail Sal Johnson at: sjohnson@golfonline.com.