Appleby wins in Hawaii

[My_Baby_Tazza]

Appleby wins in Hawaii

Fox Sports

STUART Appleby is far too golf savvy to predict that today's victory over the world's best in the US PGA Tour season opener could be a forerunner to major championship success in 2004.

But the Australian's one stroke win in the Mercedes Championship in Hawaii was certainly significant. For a start it was his first win against a field including Tiger Woods.

It's one thing to win when Woods and the other big boys are fishing, quite another to triumph over an elite 30-man field of 2003 season winners including the world's seven top-ranked players.

And, despite the eventual slim margin, this was a commanding performance by Appleby, who is rapidly cementing his place among the game's very elite.

"There were only 29 guys to beat, but they happened to be the best 29," Appleby said.

"Maybe I caught them a bit by surprise, a bit sleepy out of Christmas."

Appleby led by six strokes with seven holes left, but only narrowly survived an impressive late charge from Vijay Singh in strong Kona winds on Maui's Kapalua Plantation course.

Appleby's conservative strategy down the stretch nearly backfired, but in the end he held on and celebrated his ninth professional victory, his fifth on the US PGA Tour.

It earned him $US1,060,000 ($A1.37 million), the biggest prize of his career, as well as a Mercedes SL500 valued at around $US100,000 ($A129,000)

"That's more the player I'd like to be week in, week out," said Appleby after leading throughout the final round to shoot 71 and finish at 22-under-par 270.

"I drove the ball fantastic, the best I've hit it, made great contact with the ball all week and had a great putting week.

"My game was really inside me this week. I felt very confident. I guess the secret is doing that all the time."

Even though Appleby parred the final six holes, he was made to sweat by Singh, who reeled off three straight birdies starting at the 14th to cut the margin to two shots with two holes left.

The relentless Singh had a chance to reduce the gap to one shot at the par-four 17th, but missed a golden birdie chance from five metres.

And even though Singh birdied the last, it was too little, too late, as Appleby made a tap-in par for victory. "I felt like it was up to Vijay to catch me," said Appleby.

"I wasn't going to let him have anything for free. It was the smartest thing to do. I didn't need to make birdies.

"I didn't make any mistakes and eventually he ran out of holes to catch me."

Said Singh: "I just left it too late. Stuart did not make too many mistakes coming in. He was very safe."

World No.1 Woods, who tied for fourth, seven shots back, was impressed with Appleby's performance.

"He's worked hard on his game," said Woods. "His swing looks much better than it was. It just goes to show old-fashioned hard work pays off."peWhether this proves the highlight of Appleby's year, or a mere prelude to bigger and better things, remains to be seen.

Appleby, for one, was reluctant to speculate on his chances of winning a major any time soon.

"There are no logical steps in golf," he said. "I have no problem winning a pile of regular events. I'm sure I'm going to fit in nice a nice, fat, juicy one in the future."

Queenslander Adam Scott, who finished seventh with a day's best 68, envisages a great future for his compatriot: "I don't think too much goes wrong with his game," Scott said.

"We all lose our rhythm and mishit shots now and then, but when you swing as well as Stuey, it's easy to get that back.

"It's up to his short game. Some weeks it's not at its best and he goes okay. Other weeks, like this week, he'll win."

Indeed, Appleby's short game was impressive. He had just 110 putts, eight less than Singh.

"Unbelievable," said Singh. "He never missed from inside four or five feet."

[Donny]

World's best in Appleby's wake

By Peter Lalor - Fox

THE most important thing for Stuart Appleby was to not look back.

Behind him were 29 of the world's best golfers, but the 32-year-old Australian kept focus and held out a fast-finishing Vijay Singh to win the USPGA Mercedes Championship in Hawaii yesterday.

Appleby started the day two shots ahead of a field that included Tiger Woods, Darren Clarke and Retief Goosen, and had built a six-shot buffer going into the last nine.

Things started to wobble when he bogeyed the 14th and it was then that Singh responded, shooting birdies on 14, 15 and 16 before missing a relatively easy birdie on the penultimate hole.

Appleby held on to win the first USPGA event of the year by a stroke. He conceded that Singh was coming home strongly but "ran out of holes".

Appleby earned $1.36million and a Mercedes SL500 - the biggest purse of his career - for winning the contest made up of winners of the 2003 PGA tournaments. He now has five PGA wins and seems to be out of a slump that began after he won the Shell Houston Open in 1999.

"I guess there's only 29 guys I had to beat," the Australian said. "But they happened to be only the best 29 that were playing good. You know, I was pretty happy about that.

"Maybe I caught them by surprise - a bit sleepy out of Christmas, I don't know."

The biggest problem for the Florida-based Appleby now is what to do with the Merc.

"I need a new garage before I worry about the car," he said.