Golf-Singh says not ready to swing with the grey-hair set

Bullying golf's ageing luminaries on the PGA's Champions Tour is an option that sprightly 50-year-old Vijay Singh would rather not take as he battles to rebuild confidence following a troubled year marred by a doping controversy.

The big Fijian made his Champions Tour debut in Hawaii in September but was not enamoured of the experience, and still fancies himself a threat on the regular tour despite five years without a win.

"I played one (Champion's event) a couple of months ago. It was different," the former world number one told reporters on Wednesday at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, where he will contest this week's Australian Masters against reigning champion Adam Scott and world number eight Matt Kuchar.

"I'm not looking really forward to playing there at the moment."

The last of Hall of Famer Singh's 34 U.S. PGA Tour titles was the Deutsche Bank Championship in 2008, but the three-times major champion showed he was far from a spent force with a runner-up finish at the season-opening Frys.com Open.

That was followed by a T23 result at the Las Vegas Open and a disappointing missed cut at McGladrey Classic in Georgia at the weekend, but Singh feels confident enough about his game to dismiss his last result as a blip.

"My game's pretty good right now. I had a pretty ordinary season last and a couple before that with a couple of operations on my knee," he said.

"But this is the first year that I feel like I'm able to compete again and my games coming around.

"I've changed a little bit on my golf swing and I've gained a few yards and that's a big factor in the regular tour.

"I've got a new caddie, and gone back to the short putter so I'm really excited and looking forward."

Singh's year continues to be overshadowed by a doping case that broke in January when he admitted to using a spray that contained small extracts of IGF-1, a growth hormone on the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) list of prohibited substances, to treat an injury.

He was initially found by the PGA Tour to have breached the sport's doping rules but was later cleared of any wrongdoing after winning an appeal.

He subsequently filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York and issued a statement saying the PGA Tour had damaged his reputation.

The legal action is ongoing, and though Singh blamed the controversy for affecting his game, he said he was no longer playing with "negative" feelings.

"It kind of messed up my whole season so the best thing I told myself is just focus on what I know best which is just playing golf," said Singh, who makes his return to Royal Melbourne since the 2011 President's Cup.

"The legal side will take care of itself.

Once mentioned alongside Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson as a heavyweight of the sport, Singh's struggles in recent seasons have stung the Fijian's pride and he said he had put too much pressure on himself.

"I think I've pushed myself so hard trying to play good," said Singh, who won his two PGA Championships and a U.S. Masters in a golden period from 1998-2004.

"I want to win again. I haven't won in a few years and there's a lot of signs that I'm playing well again.

"I think I want to win so bad, that's what's bugging me so much ... I don't want to go out there and be on the senior tour.

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Golf-Let the good times roll, says red-hot Scott

Adam Scott will appreciate some time off to stop and smell the roses after a breakthrough year and a maiden major trophy at the U.S. Masters, but the Australian may find it hard to quit while enjoying some of the best form of his career.

The world number two tees up for the second week of a month-long swing of his home country at the Australian Masters this week, where he will defend the title he credits for easing the crushing disappointment of last year's British Open and setting up his Augusta triumph.

Scott blitzed a modest field to win the Australian PGA Championship last week in his former Gold Coast home, and his homecoming continues at Royal Melbourne from Thursday where he will take on American world number eight Matt Kuchar and Fijian three-time major champion Vijay Singh.

Children mobbed Scott as he donned the famed green jacket of an Augusta winner at the Gold Coast, and the amiable 33-year-old was itching to show it off again for Melbourne fans.

"It's down here this week. Hopefully the weather improves a little bit and I'll be able to bring it out a little bit for everyone to see," Scott told reporters on Wednesday after completing nine holes of the pro-am in miserable, rainy weather.

"It doesn't get seen much down here, so I'm trying to get it out as much as possible, not get it too dirty.

"Just the golf fan in me, when you see it and you stop and think about it, it's amazing that it's actually in the wardrobe and I get to travel around with it.

"Maybe also for an Australian it's the holy grail of golf because we've been trying for it for so long ... I get to wear it around the house or in a hotel room, it's quite surreal actually."

OPEN MELTDOWN

Scott returns to Melbourne a far different golfer to the pensive character of a year ago, who was plagued by questions about his mental fortitude in the wake of his British Open meltdown.

Scott blew a four-stroke lead with four holes to play at Lytham to gift South African Ernie Els the win.

At Kingston Heath last year, another showpiece course on Melbourne's famed sandbelt, Scott won the local Masters after an enthralling, weekend-long tussle with British Ryder Cup player Ian Poulter, one of the world's finest exponents of matchplay.

The manner of victory, closing it out in the last few holes, preserved the Australian's record of winning at least one title every year.

After putting on the winner's 'gold jacket', Scott quipped the green one would be next.

"Closing out the tournament was obviously the big deal to me after what happened at Lytham," Scott said.

"To stand there with a couple-shot lead with three to play and close the tournament out in solid fashion was important because I certainly didn't want to make a habit of letting tournaments slip.

"If I didn't have that experience and I had to fall back on Lytham, it might have been a really different mindset (at Augusta), so that was important.

Scott will play at the World Cup of Golf in Melbourne next week before closing out his tour Down Under at the Australian Open in Sydney ahead of a well-deserved break with family and friends.

Scott, however, was already relishing the prospect of returning to the U.S. tour to pursue his goal of completing a career grand slam of golf's majors.

"I want to keep competing and try to push myself at the moment," said Scott, whose driving and iron-play was on fire at Royal Pines last week.

"My game is probably as good as it has been.

"I'm really looking forward to going back and I feel like I have an opportunity to develop even more there and become a dominant player like a Phil Mickelson or a Tiger Woods there.

"I have the opportunity, I'm not saying I'm going to (do it), but I've got a bit of momentum going, so I'm really looking forward to going back and having a chance to win another major."

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