06.26.09 NOW I REALLY CAN’T STAND VIJAY SINGH

If you put Kobe Bryant, Bengals owner Mike Brown, Andy Roddick and Brett Favre in the same room, my animosity toward that room might approach the hate that I have for PGA Bastard-At-Arms Vijay Singh. The Fijian made headlines in 2003 at the Colonial Tournament when he said that Annika Sorrenstam–agruably the greatest female golfer ever– “didn’t belong” in a PGA event. And then he skipped the tournament while his little comrade Ernie Els came out and said what a great guy Vijay was. Sure, leave it to some ginger boy from South Africa to discount any sort of discrimination in a country club sport.

But now Vijay’s really off his rocker–he has tried to bail out Allen Stanford, who defrauded investors out of $7 billion dollars. Allegedly.

Singh has an endorsement deal with Stanford Financial reportedly worth $8 million. Although no longer being paid, Singh has continued to wear the Stanford logo on his visor and shirt.[...]

“Vijay’s opinion is that Stanford has yet to be proven guilty and until then has chose to act supportively,” said Dave Haggith, a spokesman at IMG, the management company that represents Singh.

Vijay’s reasoning: Allen’s a great guy. I’m sure he is, Vijay. Great guys stand accused of ten-figure fraud all the time. I expected a little more from a guy that grew up on the side of a volcano.

|CBS Sports, via KOGOD|