Vijay Singh has played in Australia, Asia, Europe and the United States in his quest to be a professional golfer.

Singh was once an accused cheater, an outcast who retreated to the jungle of Borneo, where he occasionally taught oil magnates but more often spent solitary days beating ball after ball.

Those humble times turned Singh into a top-notch golfer, one who is now regarded as easily the hardest worker in the game. From his worst professional nightmare, Singh emerged as one of the world's best. Now he is the reigning PGA champion.

Singh, 36, defends his PGA Championship title this week at Medinah Country Club, where the tournament begins Thursday. He'll be considered among the favorites, simply because of his prodigious length off the tee and his uncanny accuracy. Singh tied for third at the U.S. Open in June and tied for 24th at The Masters, part of a streak in which he finished among the top-25 in 13 straight tournaments.

"Once I won last year, my attitude changed," said Singh of his victory at Sahalee Country Club in Redmond, Wash. "I thought it was never going to happen. I would just go playing golf tournaments, make a living out of it. But now I'm looking forward to playing every major there is.

"I think winning the PGA kind of got me over that little hill that I was always trying to get to. I have a lot of respect from a lot of other players. I go out there, and they look at me differently now, especially the experienced players who have won majors."

This week, Singh will attempt to become the first player in 62 years to defend his PGA title, while also striving to join the exclusive club of multiple major championship winners. He enters the tournament ranked fourth in the World Rankings behind David Duval, Tiger Woods and Davis Love III.

Singh simply looks forward to playing -- and practicing. His sessions on the range are legendary around the PGA Tour. Steve Elkington, a friend of Singh's who won the 1995 PGA Championship, termed Singh's practice habits "mindless." Two-time PGA champion Nick Price joked about trying to stay on the practice range as long as Singh, just to see if he could do it.

"I've never seen anyone work as hard as that man does," Price said. "The guy's torn up more practice tees. I wonder how much earth he's moved over the years."

Singh's perseverance undoubtedly stems from his stormy history. He turned professional in 1982 at age 18, taking his game to the Australian PGA tour. From there, he went to the Asian Tour, where he ran into trouble at the 1985 Indonesian Open in Jakarta.

The tournament director ruled that Singh improved his score by one stroke before signing his card. Later, he was indefinitely suspended from the Asian Tour.

Singh has contended that there was a "misunderstanding" and that he was unfairly punished. He denies altering his card.

Regardless, the suspension was never lifted, and Singh looked for a way to survive. He took a series of club pro jobs in Borneo, where he spent the steamy afternoons when nobody wanted lessons working tirelessly on his own game.

"I was out there hitting balls in the jungle in 100-degree heat and wondering all the time how I would get on tour," Singh said. "I don't think about it much, but my wife talks about it and she says it was the best time of our lives. It was so simple."

Singh often tells of playing money games with oil barons. In one particular match, Singh said the equivalent of $700 was on the line -- money he didn't have -- when he came to the last hole, a par-5, and knocked his tee shot out of bounds. But Singh made eagle on his second ball, taking a par-5 for the hole, and won the match.

Armed with confidence and an ever-improving game, Singh moved on to Africa, where he won the 1988 Nigerian Open and became the leading money winner on the Safari Circuit. That earned him a European Tour card, and he won nine times between 1989-92 on five different tours.

He earned his PGA Tour card in 1992 and since then has captured eight tournament titles and earned more than $8 million.

Now he's looking for more.

"I can't wait to defend my title," Singh said. "Once you've won it, you know you can do it."

Seeing the future
Although he shot a disappointing 75 on Sunday during the final round of the Buick Open, Tom Kite has shown signs of his old form recently. The 19-time winner on the PGA Tour, who turns 50 in December, tied for 17th two weeks ago at Hartford and opened the Buick with rounds of 66-68 before fading on the weekend.

Kite decided to take five weeks off after the Buick Classic in June, which he believes helped invigorate him.

"I needed to kind of step away, get a little different vision," he said. "I was like a rate in a maze, making so many right and left turns you don't know where you are anymore. I had to clean the slate."

Kite had made just four cuts in his first 15 tournaments.

"Anytime I'm under par, anytime I'm in the 60s these days, I'm ecstatic," he said. "I've been struggling. I'm slowly trying to get my game back. Slowly but surely, it's showing signs."

Ryder Cup push
The tournament within the tournament this week at the PGA Championship is the race for the final spots on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, which takes on the European squad Sept. 24-26 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

The 10 automatic spots will be decided at the conclusion of the tournament. Captain Ben Crenshaw will then have two at-large picks, which he will make public Monday morning.

Tom Lehman had an excellent change to move into the top 10 over the weekend at the Buick Open, taking a four-shot lead into the final round. But Lehman faltered on Sunday and settled for a second-place tie. It left him in 11th position on the points list, just behind Jeff Maggert.

Lehman might be a captain's choice regardless. He got behind in the points race because of a shoulder injury that cut short his 1998 season and kept him from getting started in 1999.

"I missed so much time, I needed to make up some ground," said Lehman, who made the team in 1995 and 1997. "It's been a goal of mine all year. I'm just excited to have a chance."

Bob Harig, who covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a column every Tuesday for ESPN Golf Online.