Australia's Stuart Appleby capped a stirring comeback with a final round six-under-par 67 on Sunday to overhaul a faltering world number one Vijay Singh and successfully defend his Mercedes Championships title.
With his wife back in Australia about to give birth to their first child, Appleby appeared to have other things on his mind during Thursday's opening round when he was just one of four players in the winners-only field of 31 to finish above par.
However, Appleby played error-free golf the rest of the week at the Kapalua Plantation course in Hawaii, stringing together three bogey-free rounds to finish at 21-under-par and one stroke ahead of American Jonathan Kaye.
The Australian's victory enabled him to become the first back-to-back winner in the 22-year history of the event, collecting a winner's purse of $1.06 million and a luxury car.
"I think you would have gotten pretty long odds after watching me play in round one," Appleby said after registering his sixth career win. "It's surprising, you look at where I was after round one and no one would have put any money on me.
"I was getting on roll, working my way into contention. I was just doing my own thing, run hard across the line and hope I had my nose in front at the finish."
The low scoring seen in the opening three days was missing during the final round as winds and thunderstorms rumbled across Maui, dumping five centimetres of rain on the course.
Due to inclement weather, start times were moved but storms delayed play for four hours before official could send the players off in threesome from the first and 10th
TRIPLE BOGEY
Singh, who led at the end of the first three days following three bogey-free rounds, began the day with a one-stroke advantage over Kaye.
However, the Fijian winner of 11 straight events when leading after 54 holes saw his chances of a victory disappear with a triple bogey on the par-four 13th, finishing three shots back at 18-under and tied for fifth.
Despite struggling with his putting the entire week, Tiger Woods launched his 2005 campaign on a positive note, firing a final round five-under-par 68 to finish in a tie for third, two shots adrift alongside South Africa's Ernie Els.
"I think I had 300 putts this week," Woods joked. "This was just one of those weeks when I didn't hit anything.
"The good news is I was striking the ball well and if I play this well all year my putting will be there."
Els made a late charge to challenge for the lead with birdies on 15 and 16 to trail by one, but any hope of forcing a playoff ended when an errant tee shot at the last led the twice U.S. Open champion to falter with a bogey six.
It was an erratic final round for Els, who had four bogeys to offset six birdies in his two-under 71.
Australia's Adam Scott fired the low round of the day, closing with four consecutive birdies to finish at eight-under 65, three shots off the pace tied for fifth with Singh and Stewart Cink.
