If it is indeed the end, the Sony Open in Hawaii couldn’t have closed the show any better for me.

I have been caddying in the pro-ams for Oahu’s PGA Tour stop for a while now, lugging 40-pound bags around the property, raking bunkers and reading greens on a course I have never played.

The list of the professionals who have been in my group is long, probably highlighted by Keegan Bradley and Anthony Mackie before they both became Captain America and Ben Griffin right when he became a world-beater rather than a mortgage loan officer.

This year was the most rigorous. Knowing that it was probably the final time the circus would be in town, I did two loops on Jan. 11 and another one on Jan. 12 and signed up for two more during Wednesday’s pro-am with a round of playing 360° Ewa Beach Country Club on Tuesday. Teeing off at sunrise with bomber Emiliano Grillo, for some reason I took a peek at the tee sheet.

Staring right back at me, next to that of the Japanese executive I would be mule-ing for, was a name that has been familiar to me since I started following the game.

Vijay Singh.

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The Big Fijian. The forever king of the long iron. The man who has hit more golf balls than anyone, ever.

The 62-year-old has been my favorite player forever. When he ruled the sport with nine wins in 2004 and left a prime Tiger Woods in his wake I was on an island in the office in saying that there is no better player on Sunday.

True to form, Singh showed up to the 10th tee for the pro-am soaked in sweat. When he began limping down the first fairway using his driver as a cane, I asked myself if I really wanted to see this. I was too young to see Willie Mays stumble around center field for the Mets but endured boyhood idol Omar Moreno playing out the string for the Braves and the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fiasco.

Singh managed his way around the course for the first two holes but dumped his tee shot on 13 into the fairway bunker on the left. The No. 1 rule for Waialae is ‘Don’t miss left’ and the most experienced guy did. Peering through my fingers, I saw the man smash an iron 150 yards pin high. He did the same thing on Sunday.

He hit fairways and greens and more than a few missed putts, but still, something was different. Right there under his nose, a smile often appeared. Singh was notorious for being a grumpy old man even when he was younger, a product of being hit with a lifetime ban from the Asia Pro Tour for changing his scorecard and not making the big tour until he was 29 with Annika Sorenstam and Deer Antler Spray controversies after that.

But this week, he was a man of the people, with longtime volunteers welcoming him back and a gallery as large as anyone’s this side of Hideki Matsuyama. Usually the professional in a pro-am is just there to shake hands and work on his game. Most of the amateurs want to win and their pro is supposed to be on the team, and Singh played the role better than anyone. Despite them not speaking a lick of English, Singh read their putts and helped them choose a line of approach and they walked off the course in the top five with smiles and laughs all around.

I was fine with the tournament ending before it began because my feet hurt, but Singh joined a short list of players to make a PGA Tour cut in four different decades. When the final round rolled around, he was paired with journeyman Zac Blair, who captured my heart with a 281-yard 3-wood into the sun in 2016 and his undying love for Kahuku Golf Course, which he played again this week.

With that pairing, I had to go. Blair might have wished he was back at Kahuku since he found himself behind too many monkeypod trees and left at least five shots on the lip on his way to a 70 and a 50th-place finish. Singh shot a 69 and took 40th place despite his putter finally betraying him to add $31,522 to the $71,281,216 he has earned in his PGA Tour career, $1.5 million at Waialae alone.

After 18 holes of love from the crowd, Singh birdied his final hole to a loud ovation, the most overlooked World Golf Hall of Famer finally getting his due.

It’s far from the end for Singh, but it was happy- ever-after for me.

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Reach Jerry Campany at jcampany@staradvertiser.com.