At least Vijay Singh puts his Phil Mickelson hate out in the open

Say this for Vijay Singh: he knows how to fuel a rivalry. If nothing else, you have to admire him for taking his grudges public.

There is nothing sneaky about Vijay Singh (except maybe his scorecard techniques in Indonesia). If Vijay doesn’t like you, everyone’s going to know about it. There is something amusing about a guy who has his caddy wear a “Tiger Who?” hat causing the greatest golfer in history to turn into a seething schoolgirl. Of course, Tiger wouldn’t acknowledge he was peeved. He just hinted around at it and let others do the talking for him. He handled it sort of like Paris Hilton would.

Not Vijay. He gets in your face. Just ask Phil Mickelson. First, the spikes, now the driver. What’s next? Vijay asks Tour officials to examine whether Mickelson’s smile is real?

You cannot help be on Mickelson’s side in this one. It’s hard to muster much sympathy for a guy who essentially called his caddie a drunk fool. Vijay is about as cuddly as a porcupine. Still, the PGA Tour is better for having him around.

There are tons of grudges out there on Tour. Only Vijay is nice enough to let us in on the drama now and then.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem should be consulting Vijay for marketing suggestions. Now, here’s someone who knows how to make early-season golf interesting.