Furyk clinches title on final hole

Playing for the first time in two months following a freak football injury to his right wrist, Jim Furyk would have been happy just to make it through 72 holes in the Mercedes Championships.

In the end, he was thankful that was all he had to play.

Four strokes down to start the final day, Furyk holed a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole today and won the Mercedes when Rory Sabbatini missed a 3-foot birdie putt that would have forced a playoff.

Furyk had his driver out and was preparing to go back to the 18th hole for a sudden-death playoff as Sabbatini lined up his putt. Instead, he won for the sixth time in his PGA Tour career, and the second time in Hawaii.

"I'd like to win this event with a more heroic finish,'' Furyk said. "I feel for Rory. It's a pretty sick feeling.''

Furyk closed with a 6-under-par 67 for a 274 total and was the only player to have four rounds in the 60s on the mountainous, windy Plantation Course at Kapalua. He earned $630,000 and a Mercedes sports car.

Sabbatini also came to Maui with low expectations.

"I would have taken 33rd place'' in the field of 33 winners from last year, he said.

Instead, he overcame a couple of bogeys with bold play, and refused to beat himself up over a 3-foot putt that was no tap-in -- the slope of the green was to the right, but the grain of the grass and the wind were to the left.

"There's nothing in golf that's ever a gimme,'' he said. "I didn't trust my line. I knew I missed when I hit it. But I came here to give it my best, and I'm not sorry about that.''

It was another thrilling finish at Kapalua, where last year Tiger Woods and Ernie Els matched eagles on the 633-yard closing hole that drops down toward the Pacific Ocean.

The only thing missing this year was Woods.

Coming off perhaps the greatest season in golf, Woods never got untracked and closed with a 69, leaving him six strokes behind in a tie for eighth.

"Not bad for coming out and really not playing a whole lot,'' Woods said. "A little bit of rust, and it showed. If I could have made a few more putts the first three days, I would have been right there.''

Woods has gone four PGA Tour events without winning, not unusual except by the standard he has set over the past two years. It's his longest spell on tour since he went seven tournaments between victories in early 1999.

Els had a chance once again, but missed five birdie chances inside 15 feet on the back nine. He tried to summon the magic from a year ago, but his approach into the 18th was pulled into the hazard and he took par.

Els had a 69 and tied for third at 276 with Masters champion Vijay Singh.

"I played good enough to win this week,'' Els said. "I just got in my own way.''

The victory was a familiar one for Furyk.

He has won three times in Hawaii, including an unofficial event at Kapalua. All of his victories have come at tournaments where wind is a factor -- three times in Las Vegas, and last year at Doral.

And it was his third come-from-behind victory on tour.

This wasn't as great as Doral, where he made up six strokes over the last seven holes, but it was equally impressive.

Furyk made a 60-foot eagle putt on the fifth hole to get into the mix, and kept his chances alive after two critical mistakes on the 16th -- a drive into the fairway bunker, and an approach that sailed over the green.

But he made a 12-foot par putt, then pulled ahead with his birdie on the 18th.

"What a way to start the year,'' Furyk said.

He injured his wrist while trying to break up a pass as his buddies tossed a football around after a Baltimore Ravens game in late October.

"I'm not as quick as I used to be,'' he said, joking.

He played only one round before coming to Maui, watching David Duval shoot a 63 in Jacksonville, Fla. Duval finished five strokes back at the Mercedes.

The winners-only tournament came down to three players on the back nine -- Furyk, Sabbatini, and Els.

Furyk squandered a chance at the par-5 15th when his 60-yard wedge shot caught the front of the green and spun back down the slope. Furyk, hands on hips, could only watch as the ball finally rolled to a stop about 10 yards in front of him. He hit a nice pitch to save par.

Nothing came easily to Sabbatini.

He trailed only once all day, when he pulled an approach into the bunker left of the pin on the 13th and missed a 6-foot par putt. But he didn't buckle.

After a 10-foot birdie putt on the 14th pulled him back into a tie with Furyk, Sabbatini drilled a 3-wood that never got much higher than 15 feet in the air and scooted up the slope and onto the green, leaving him a two-putt birdie and putting him back in the lead.

But not for long.

On the 16th, where he holed out with a 96-yard sand wedge in the third round, he came up short and chipped 5 feet past the hole. His par putt went 6 feet by, and he was thankful to get off the green with bogey.

He thought he had recovered sufficiently until the last putt trickled over the left side of the lip.

"Just to come here and complete the 72 holes, I would have been happy,'' Furyk said. "I'm pretty amazed.''

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