One minute yesterday afternoon Vijay Singh was gregarious, laughing up a group from The Golf Channel and, the next, blowing off a magazine reporter.

In one sentence with a TV crew he wished Michelle Wie apparently heartfelt good luck and, at the next, flatly declared she had no chance to win the Sony Open in Hawai'i and wondered about her place in the field.

Off the course you never know what you're going to get with the mercurial man from Fiji.

On it, however, there is no doubting he will be on the leaderboard, usually at his world-class best. Especially, it seems, here at Waialae Country Club, where he begins defense of his Sony Open title as the biggest name in the field.

Or, at least the most-watched one not wearing earrings and sporting a ponytail.

In the last decade Waialae has become more an ATM than a challenge to Singh, who has banked $1,313,486 in winnings over the course of three Hawaiian Opens and seven Sonys. Enough to buy a plot of land in Hilo and keep him coming back.

Small wonder he maintained yesterday, "I love Hawai'i. I love the weather. I don't know why so many other guys don't come and play here. It is one of the great ways to start the year. It is cold back home (Florida), cold every where in America, so this is paradise. I'm just surprised that the field is not as strong as it should be. I just love playing here."

He may love it even more — and land a Hawai'i Visitors Bureau sponsorship — if he can pick up along the lines of the final-round 66 he shot Sunday at Kapalua, forcing a playoff with eventual champion Stuart Appleby.

For sure he is motivated, hardly resting on the considerable hardware or bank account of 2005. A year he characterized as looking really good "on paper" but saying, "I was disappointed. I thought I played a lot better than I scored. I scored poorly."

Perhaps only by the stratospheric standards of two golfers on this planet — Singh and somebody named Tiger — could four tournament titles, 18 top-10 finishes and earnings of more than $8 million be considered "disappointing."

Never mind that he finished second only to Woods and bested third-place Phil Mickelson by $2 million in earnings.

But such was the year he had in 2004, with nine wins and nearly $11 million in earnings, that it paled in comparison. And there was the way some big ones, like Honda, got away.

Anybody who has watched Singh toil seemingly endlessly here on the putting green or driving range, knows he is painstaking in his pursuit of perfection. That he is unrelenting in his drive to win and unyielding in finding challenges.

Yet it is illustrative that Singh professes to have redoubled his efforts. That he says he has compelled himself "to work a lot harder." If that is, indeed, possible.

Said Singh, who turns 43 next month, by way of motivation: "There are guys half my age on tour."

And, this week, one woman almost a third of his age.

None of them should doubt which Singh will step on the course today to defend his title.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.