KAPALUA, Hawaii: Fiji's Vijay Singh, a three-time major golf champion, will have knee surgery after this week's season-opening event and miss five weeks, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported on Wednesday.

Singh, who led last year's US PGA Tour with 6.6 million dollars and won the season-ending playoff crown, will play in the 5.6 million-dollar Mercedes-Benz Championship, a Maui event for 2008 title winners, before the surgery.

The newspaper reported that Singh told PGA officials after a practice round on Monday at Kapalua that he would withdraw from the Sony Open in Hawaii next week.

Citing several unnamed sources, the newspaper said the reason was for surgery to repair a torn meniscus.

Singh, 45, is paired alongside defending champion Daniel Chopra of Sweden in Thursday's first round of the 33-man event over the hilly Plantation Course. Singh won the Mercedes crown in 2007 and the Sony Open title in 2005.

Fifth-ranked Singh is the top-rated player in the opener with Tiger Woods still sidelined by a knee injury and Spain's Sergio Garcia, American Phil Mickelson and Ireland's Padraig Harrington all starting the season later. - AFP/de