Vijay Singh (Stats | Bio) stood outside the scorer's tent behind the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club, shook his head and kept saying "next year" to reporters after the final round of the 2003 Masters Tournament.

Singh had tied for sixth place, six shots out of a playoff, but he knew the finish could have been better. He was 2-under par for the round after birdies on Nos. 10 and 11 on the final day, but he made bogeys on Nos. 12, 13 and 15 to shoot 1-over-par 73.

"Next year" is here, and Singh expects it to bring a major championship, which is about all he lacked in 2003.

In his 10th full year on the PGA Tour, Singh set personal bests in victories (four), money earned ($7,573,907, to lead the tour) and top 10s (18 in 27 starts), but didn't add to his major championship total. He's stuck at two - the 1998 PGA Championship and the 2000 Masters.

"This is the first year where I feel like I have a very good chance of winning one of the majors again," said Singh, who at 41 is halfway to a career grand slam. "I'm playing well; I'm striking the ball well. I feel physically very strong, and my mental is very good, too. So all in all, you still have to go out there and perform. So I just hope that I go out there and get into contention, get into the middle of things and start to play.

"I'm looking forward to the majors again, and I'm ready for the tournaments," Singh said, pointing to the Masters, the first major of the season.

Singh has already won this year, at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, running his tour career victory total to 16.

"I think when I'm playing well, if I play the way I know how and I want to when I start, going in, I can win the golf tournament every week," he said.

No one was more consistent at the start of this season, when Singh had five consecutive top-10 finishes (Tiger Woods (Stats | Bio) played in only two of those tournaments). That gave Singh 12 straight top-10 finishes since the end of the 2003 season.

"I feel great, and I feel good about my game," Singh said. "I feel good about my health. I'm able to play and compete every week out there."

During the streak, Singh downplayed it, saying it was victories, not top-10 finishes, he was after.

"I didn't really think about it when I was out there," he said.

He compared the end of the streak, which came at the Buick Invitational on Feb. 13, to the consecutive cut streak he had from 1995 to 1998.

"When I started thinking about it, I said, 'Wow, thank God it's over,' " Singh said.

With the exception of Woods, no one has played better than Singh over the past year. Singh was the first player in five years to challenge Woods for player of the year honors, and he also started to close the gap in his bid to overtake Woods as the top-ranked player in the world.

Entering the 2003 Masters, Singh was sixth in the World Golf Ranking, with 5.95 points, well behind Woods, who was at 17.70. Two weeks before this year's Masters, Singh was firmly in second place, less than four points behind Woods.

"That's my ultimate goal, to take the No. 1 spot, but there's a guy out there that's not playing too badly, either," Singh said. "Right now I feel like I've got to win more tournaments and get to the No. 1 spot. Finishing in the top 10 is not going to get me to the No. 1 spot. It may not happen this year, but it's in my mind."