Golf: It's Appleby as Singh falters

Australian golfer Stuart Appleby capped a stirring comeback with a final round six-under-par 67 yesterday to overhaul a faltering world No.1 Vijay Singh and successfully defend his Mercedes Championship 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 $US1.06 million ($NZ1.54 million) and a luxury car.
"I think you would have had pretty long odds after watching me play in round one," Appleby said.
"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 a 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 officials could send the players off in threesomes 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 saw his chances of 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 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. 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 US 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.