📍Nadi, Fiji
1963 – 1981“Vijay Singh was born in Lautoka, Fiji, in February 1963, and grew up in Nadi, a town on the dry western side of Viti Levu, the main island, among sugar-cane fields, beaches and coconut palms. He is Indo-Fijian, of Hindu heritage, and his father, Mohan, worked as an aircraft technician at Nadi International Airport and was captain of the small golf club there. His father taught him golf from about the age of eleven. The family couldn't afford many golf balls, so Vijay hit coconuts instead; as he later joked, golf balls don't grow on trees, so he found some that did. To reach the nine-hole course on the far side of the airport, he would walk five miles round, or jump the fence and sprint across the runway, or crawl through the drainage pipes beneath it. He also played rugby, Fiji's national sport, as well as cricket, football and snooker. He learned his swing from a sequence of photographs of Tom Weiskopf in a golf magazine, copying it in front of a mirror, and practised for hours on end, a habit that made him famous later. He turned professional in 1982 and played around Asia and Africa, at one stage working as a club professional in Borneo. His relentless practice paid off: he won three major championships, including the 2000 Masters, and in 2004 he became world number one, ending Tiger Woods's long reign. He remains Fiji's greatest sporting hero, and the boy who hit coconuts in Nadi is now a Hall of Famer.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today