COLIN FARQUHARSON writes: It is only a week or two short of 10 years since I wrote the following article for the "Press and Journal."
I believe it is worth another "airing," given that Vijay Singh is still going strong in his 40s, having won a tournament already this year and is the leading money winner on the US PGA Tour.
My one regret is that I have been unable to find out if Tom Gaddo-Bobo, the man who "discovered" Vijay Singh in the backwoods of Malaysia, is still alive and living in Portlethen. He is not listed in the Aberdeen telephone directory and the Shell HQ in Aberdeen could not throw any light on their retired employee.

SHELL WORKER TOM
PUT VIJAY SINGH
ON THE ROAD TO
FAME AND FORTUNE

Every time Vijay Singh wins a golf tournament, a retired oil executive at Portlethen near Aberdeen should stand up and take a bow.
Why? Because it was Tom Gaddo-Bobo, then working for Shell in Malaysia, who “discovered” Singh in the 1980s and set his golfing career on the road from obscurity to multi-million dollar earnings on the US PGA Tour.
“Shell had their own golf course at Miri in the state of Sarawak in eastern Malaysia. I used to go and play there and Vijay Singh was the club pro. He had been there about 18 months when I first met Vijay around about 1987,” said Tom.
“He had won the Malaysian PGA championship in 1984 and it was obvious he was a very talented player – a very long hitter and enthusiastic about the game. But there was a great danger that he was going to spend the rest of his life in that obscure club job which did not pay him all that high a wage.
NO MONEY TO TRAVEL
"Vijay did not have the money to travel, certainly not to Britain and Europe, where he needed to be for his playing ability to develop.”
Tom Gaddo-Bobo knew the right people to approach within the oil business to arrange financial assistance for Vijay.
Manfred Steinkamp and Werner Lau of The Red Baron oil tools rental company did not have to be asked twice.
“We paid for Vijay to come over for the 1987 Open at Muirfield. In fact, he did not make it through the pre-qualifying and could not play in the event,” recalled Tom.
“We did not let a little setback like that put us off. The difference in conditions from Malaysia to East Lothian was too great for Vijay to conquer at the first go. But the trip demonstrated that he needed to widen his playing experience.
TURNING POINT
“We assisted in paying for Vijay to return to Europe to play in the PGA qualifying school in 1988. He won his player’s card, picked up a bit more experience on the African Tour - and Vijay never really booked back after that.”
Singh did represented The Red Barony company in an Aberdeen Petroleum Club pro-celam, then played at Deeside Golf Club, but the great pity as far as it was concerned was that it failed to get Vijay Singh’s name on a contract before Mark McCormack and the IMG Group saw his big-time potential and stepped in to sign up the Fijian.
Tom Gaddo-Bobo says that stories suggesting Vijay was barefoot when he first knew him are an exaggeration although he did buy him his first pair of golf shoes and set of matched golf clubs.
Tom does admit that they had to kit out Singh in jumpers galore when he played in Europe for the first time.
“Vijay used to feel the cold very badly in contrast to the constant heat of Malaysia and he would wear three sweaters on top of each other on what we could call a typical British summer’s bay,” said Tom.
“Vijay is still a very nice guy even through he is a millionaire several times over these days.”
+Vijay means “Victory” in Hindi.