Most golfers get fired by their caddie and spend the week sulking. Vijay Singh got fired by his caddie on a Tuesday and won the tournament on Sunday. At 63.
For more info: GOLF.com
“My Caddie Fired Me This Tuesday”
That’s a real quote, and Singh said it after winning, which is the only time you can say it and sound cool. Heading into the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, North Carolina, the final regular-season event on PGA Tour Champions, his regular caddie walked away. Singh’s own explanation was refreshingly honest: he figured he’d been “getting onto him too much.”
Translation: the guy famous for grinding on the range until the lights go off had been a bit much to work for. Shocking. Nobody saw that coming.
Enter the Emergency Caddie
With a tournament starting in days and no one to carry the bag, Singh picked up the phone and called Wayne De Haas, a former pro who has looped for Ernie Els and Cameron Young. De Haas had just lost a Korn Ferry Tour bag of his own, so the timing worked out for both of them. Two guys who’d each just been dumped, teaming up for one last job. Somebody pitch this to Netflix.
Singh said afterward that having someone who knew what they were doing made golf “so much easier.” Which is a polite way of saying the old arrangement was not making golf easy.
The Win
Singh closed with a 3-under 69, finished at 9-under 207, and rolled in a par putt on 18 to beat Ernie Els by two. Yes, the same Ernie Els whose former caddie was now on Singh’s bag. Golf is a small world, and occasionally a petty one.
- Age: 63, making him the second-oldest winner in PGA Tour Champions history
- Drought snapped: First win since the Ally Challenge in August 2023 (Singh guessed it had been “four, five years,” so he wasn’t counting)
- Career tally: Sixth PGA Tour Champions title, on top of 34 PGA Tour wins and three majors
- Paycheck: $345,000 from a $2.3 million purse
The Real Secret: He Started Practicing Again
The best part of Singh’s post-round chat wasn’t the caddie drama. It was him admitting he’d been “very lazy practicing” and only recently got back to work on his game. Vijay Singh, a man whose range sessions are basically golf folklore, called himself lazy. If that’s lazy, the rest of us are in a coma.
So that’s the Vijay Singh SAS Championship story: fired on Tuesday, rehired a friend on Wednesday, beat Ernie on Sunday, and still found time to roast himself. Takes some serious balls to win the week your caddie quits on you. Takes even bigger ones to tell everyone about it.
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