Vijay closes in on world No.1 Tiger Woods

Vijay Singh, the game’s hottest player over the last five months, has closed the gap on world No.1 Tiger Woods in the official rankings following his victory in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at the weekend. Fijian Singh, who moved to second in the global pecking order after winning the Funai Classic last October, inched to within 3.08 points of Woods — the narrowest margin between the American and the second-ranked player since the standings were revamped in September 2001.

Singh fired a closing 69 to triumph by three shots at Pebble Beach on Sunday, extending his run of consecutive top-10 finishes in PGA Tour events to 12.

The 40-year-old, who last year ended Woods’s four-year reign as the U.S. Tour’s leading money winner, has moved to the top of the 2004 money list with $1,966,000 from four tournaments.

Woods, who skipped last week’s Pebble Beach event for the second year in a row, remained world No.1 for a record 235th consecutive week — and 306th week overall.