Vijay Singh Shares How Much More He’ll Play on PGA Tour

The 62-year-old explained to Sports Illustrated his controversial decision to play the Sony Open and how much he’ll tee it up away from the senior tour in 2026.

Vijay Singh cleared the air on using his career money exemption at the Sony Open and how often he'll play the PGA Tour in 2026. | Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Network

Kicking off the year in golf, Vijay Singh sparked a hullabaloo. 

The 62-year-old Fijian exercised his career money exemption, making the 34-time PGA Tour winner eligible for full-field events this year. He then entered the season-opening Sony Open in Hawaii, impressively finishing T40 after making his first cut since the 2020 Memorial in his first Tour-sanctioned start since the 2024 Masters.

But the three-time major winner’s decision raised a question: How much will he tee it up on Tour this year? 

He confirmed to Sports Illustrated on Tuesday from the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualālai, the season opener for the PGA Tour Champions, that he’s not planning to play against the game’s top players regularly, and will stick to competing full-time on the 50-and-over tour. 

“If I wanted to, I can play one or two other [PGA Tour] events if possible,” Singh said. “Maybe if I’m fit enough to walk the Masters because that’s a hilly golf course, I may play San Antonio [the Valero Texas Open] a week before that and Phoenix is a pretty flat golf course, so I could play that.

“So besides that, I mean, I’m happy to be on the Champions tour.”

Why did he decide to tee it up at the Sony Open?

“I wanted to play Sony,” said Singh, who won the event in 2005, “so instead of asking for a sponsor’s invite, I just said, ‘s---, I’m 62, I don’t know how many more years I’m gonna get a chance,’ it’s the last time to play Sony because it seems like they’re not going back there, so I said, ‘I love the golf course, I love Hawaii, so I might as well just do that.’”

A round of applause for the veteran 👏

62-year-old @VijaySinghGolf was the oldest player in the field @SonyOpenHawaii, made the cut and finished T38 with the young guns on the @PGATOUR. pic.twitter.com/RmMXteTJaR

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) January 19, 2026

That, however, attracted some detractors, feeling that Singh, who has collected $71 million in career earnings (sixth all-time) throughout a career that began in 1992, was taking a spot away from someone else in the 120-player field. 

“Everybody thought I was just taking up a number, but I went in there to play well, to compete,” he said. “I always enter a tournament, not just to make up the numbers, I want to compete. Same thing with the Masters [where is Singh is exempt as a past champion], if I go there, I don’t want to go there and just play two days and leave. If my body’s good enough and if I feel my game is good enough, I’m going to go play and play to compete.”

After the Sony Open, how would Singh assess his current form?

“After the first round walking, I thought I wasn’t going to make it for the second round because it’s the first time I walked 18 [holes] in a long time,” said Singh, who hadn’t played a non-major Tour event since 2021 and last competed on Tour full-time in 2017. “But the more I walked, the better it got, the more used to it I got.

“I would have loved to finish better, kind of messed up coming in the last few holes, but besides that, I was O.K. with the performance, and a little disappointed.”

He’ll have the chance to top his T40 in Hawaii, because this year likely won’t be his last making starts against the Tour’s young guns. 

“I got the lifetime exemption [which Singh regained after making a start this year] as well, winning more than 20 events,” Singh said. “Yeah, so now if you play one event on Tour and get your stroke average to the average stroke average for the Tour for the year, I think I’m going to beat that [and] I should get my exemption back for next year, so if I wanted to play next year, I could.”