Vijay Singh continues his reluctant ways; Els, I mean, Woods, I mean, Singh could be No. 1

Two interesting stories worth checking out on Golfobserver.com this morning.

The first is a piece about Vijay Singh, written by Lorne Rubenstein, dealing with the Great Fijian Hope's inability to show up at the media tent following his loss to Padraig Harrington on Sunday. Sure, Singh missed a gimme putt to lose, Rubenstein writes, but he still expected Singh would show up to give a couple of quotes. Apparently not.
This jives pretty well with my experience with Singh at the last couple of Canadian Opens. Last year, following his second round at Glen Abbey, the Tour's media flack asked Vijay if he'd scrum with the reporters waiting to talk to him. Vijay declined, saying he'd come down to the media tent. Hardly any of the reporters believed him, though at least a couple, including Doug Ferguson of AP, thought it was a clever ploy by Singh to avoid talking to anyone. Tell them you're coming to speak with them and then slip away to your courtesy car.
Anyway, Singh did show up, but one had to wonder why. He hardly says anything of any value.
Rubenstein's article doesn't really address it, but I bet Singh's reluctance to deal with the media is a direct result of his encounter with the press following his comments about Annika Sorenstam playing at the Colonial. Singh felt stung by getting hammered in the press for simply telling his honest opinion. Maybe he was right to back away from the press at that point, but it sure isn't helping the game to have one of its best players rarely speak openly to the media. The PGA Tour needs reporters to hype the sport and Singh just doesn't seem to get that. And while some will point to Ben Hogan as another great who had a ambiguous relationship with the press, that was during another time.
Oh, and Singh isn't Ben Hogan. He simply comes across as a robot like and dull. That's not a good combination.

Rubenstein's story can be found here.

• Golfobserver.com also addresses the increasingly close World Rankings issue, which has drawn even tighter following Ernie Els' consecutive wins in the Middle East. Figuring out how the situation will resolve itself following Bay Hill is about as complex as figuring out a way for Israel to resolve its problems with the Palestinians. So I won't try to explain it.Suffice to say, if Els wins and Tiger ends up in second, then Tiger remains the world No.1. But if Els wins and Tiger ... oh, just read the story. It can be found here.