11 January 2005	Tuesday	29 Ziqa'ad 1425

NEW YORK, Jan 10: 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.

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 tees.

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.

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.

FINAL ROUND SCORES

271 Stuart Appleby (Australia) 74 64 66 67

272 Jonathan Kaye 68 67 66 71

273 Tiger Woods 68 68 69 68, Ernie Els (South Africa) 69 65 68 71

274 Adam Scott (Australia) 69 72 68 65, Stewart Cink 68 68 67 71, Vijay Singh (Fiji) 66 65 69 74

276 David Toms 71 67 70 68, Vaughn Taylor 69 69 68 70

278 Sergio Garcia (Spain) 68 67 73 70, Craig Parry (Australia) 67 72 68 71

279 Woody Austin 69 72 68 70

280 Jonathan Byrd 72 70 71 67, Retief Goosen (South Africa) 71 67 69 73, Mike Weir (Canada) 70 63 71 76

281 Bart Bryant 69 72 69 71

282 John Daly 70 69 70 73, Chad Campbell 69 67 71 75

283 Rod Pampling (Australia) 70 72 69 72, Stephen Ames (Canada) 73 72 67 71, Mark Hensby (Australia) 70 73 71 69

285 Andre Stolz (Australia) 73 71 71 70

286 Joey Sindelar 71 68 71 76, Heath Slocum 69 70 72 75, Zach Johnson 72 70 71 73

287 Ryan Palmer 76 68 71 72, Todd Hamilton 72 72 72 71

288 Brent Geiberger 72 73 71 72

289 Steve Flesch 69 73 72 75

290 Fred Funk 74 74 67 75

292 Carlos Franco (Paraguay) 74 71 72 75. -Reuters