Singh's season is not up there with the numbers that Byron Nelson posted in 1945 when he racked up a record 18 victories, and Singh won't pass the 13-victory mark that Ben Hogan reached in 1946. But right now, Singh is tied for seventh place for most PGA Tour wins in a season. The others who have had 8-win seasons on the PGA Tour are Horton Smith in 1929, Gene Sarazen in 1930, Harry Cooper in 1937, Sam Snead in 1938, Henry Picard in 1939, Byron Nelson in 1944, Arnold Palmer in 1960 & '62, Johnny Miller in 1974, and Tiger Woods in 1999.

Vijay will be playing in three more PGA Tour events this year (FUNAI Classic at Disney World, Chrysler Championship in Tampa and Tour Championship), and if he can win them all to reach 11 wins, he would tie Sam Snead (1950) for the third most wins in a year. Hogan had a 10-win season in 1948, while Paul Runyan and Woods had 9-win seasons in 1933 and 2000, respectively.

Starting with his win at the 2002 Tour Championship, Singh has won 13 of the last 54 PGA Tour events in which he's played for a winning percentage of 24.1. In his last 16 starts, beginning with the Shell Houston Open in late April, he has won 7 times for a winning percentage of 43.8. That includes five wins in his last six starts (83.3%).

In looking at the best streaks on the PGA Tour since World War II (minimum 10 starts), here is how Singh's 43.8 winning percentage compares:

You may wonder about Arnold Palmer. His best streak came between the 1960 Palm Springs tournament and 1961 Baton Rouge Open, when he won 11 times in 31 PGA tour starts for a winning percentage of 35.5. Also worth noting is that David Duval won 11 times in 34 starts from the 1997 Michelob Championship through the 1999 BellSouth Classic for a winning percentage of 32.4.

How special is Singh's streak? Unfortunately, it comes on the heels of Tiger's great run in 2000, so it's not getting the same kind of attention. Also, Woods won three majors while Singh only won one. Still, Singh's year will go down in the annals of golf as one of the best.

Also making it special is the fact that Singh has earned more money this year than anyone ever has before in a PGA Tour season. Woods earned $9.18 million in 2000, but with his win Sunday Singh surpassed Woods by raising his 2004 total to $9.45 million. The goal has to be a cool $10 million for the year. It's still very doable, but it's not the sure thing it was before Singh withdrew from this week's WGC-American Express Championship due to damage to his home in Ponte Vedra Beach caused by the latest hurricane. He will be with his family tending to that instead of trying to win in Ireland.

KEYS TO VICTORY

Vijay Singh: As time goes on, Singh is looking more Hogan-like in his style of play. There is nothing flashy in the way Singh plays; he just hits a lot of greens in regulation. For the third time in a row, Singh won an event while leading the greens hit category. In his last 216 holes played, he has hit 76 percent of the greens. We don't have greens hit stats from the Hogan era, but I would be very surprised if Hogan ever surpassed this for a similar stretch.

Another important fact to note is that Singh gets the job done early to take the lead and then holds on. This was Singh's fourth wire-to-wire win, and in his last nine victories seven times he has entered the final round as the leader or co-leader. Taking this a step further, the last 10 times that Singh has had or shared the lead going into the final round he has won. This just shows how automatic Singh has gotten. He doesn't need heroics to win tournaments, as he plays well right from the start, grabs the lead, and then holds on for the win.

It will be interesting to see how long Singh can keep this up. He doesn't rely on teachers to help him with his game, and he hasn't really changed his swing in years. If he does have a weakness it could be putting. But when you hit it on the green 3 out of 4 times, it means you have a lot of 15- to 20-footers for birdie and a lot of two-putts.

We can't compare Singh's game with Tiger Woods; they are very different in style. If you were to compare Singh's game to another great modern player you probably have to look at Nick Price. He too hit a lot of greens when he went through his great run from 1992-94. Then his focus turned more to his family than to his golf game. I don't see this happening to Singh. He wants to lap the field and show that he is better than Woods. I feel that Woods is the only player that can beat Vijay right now, and it will be interesting to see if Woods will respond to this challenge. For the time being, Singh is the best golfer on the planet, and I don't see that changing for the rest of the year.

Singh's stats (with rank in parentheses):

Fairways hit: 43 of 56     (T32nd)
Driving average: 302.6     (8th)
Greens hit: 57 of 72     (1st)
Putts: 115 (28.75 per rd)     (T50th)
Putting breakdown:
0 putt greens: 1
1 putt greens: 28
2 putt greens: 42
3 putt greens: 1
Eagles: 1     
Birdies: 20     (T2nd)
Scrambling: 9 of 15 (60.0%) (T51st)

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.

WHY HE DIDN'T WIN

Stewart Cink: While Vijay was in cruise control after an opening round of 64, Cink was struggling with his game. He opened with a pair of 71s and was 10 behind Singh at the halfway mark. This is the reason for him not winning. Even though he shot 65 on Sunday, Cink didn't have much of a chance to win. Cink has improved on his putting and scrambling this year, and it showed again this week. Of the 19 greens that he failed to hit in regulation, he got it up and down for par 16 times.

Cink's stats (with rank in parentheses):

Fairways hit: 37 of 56     (T65th)
Driving average: 295.8     (29th)
Greens hit: 53 of 72     (T6th)
Putts: 109 (27.25 per rd)     (17th)
Putting breakdown:
0 putt greens: 2
1 putt greens: 33
2 putt greens: 35
3 putt greens: 2
Eagles: 0     
Birdies: 20     (T2nd)
Scrambling: 16 of 19 (84.2%) (1st)