Super Singh holds his nerve

VIJAY SINGH waited until the first hole of a three-man play-off to card his first bogey of the day at Whistling Straits yesterday.

But it was enough to inspire the 1998 champion from Fiji to go on and win the title for the second time having been previously successful in 1998 while he also won the Masters at Augusta two years later.

With Tiger Woods possibly in terminal decline, Singh is now clearly the outstanding player in the game at the moment, even if he did have many a wobble through yesterday's closing 18 holes played amidst fierce tension, pressure and excitement. Whistling Straits fought back in style after being brought to its knees on the first day with the champion soaring to a 76 and yet getting into a play-off with Chris DiMarco, who closed with a 71, and Leonard who bogeyed the 16th and 18th in normal time for a 75.

Singh duly took the lead when he tapped in a five-footer for birdie at the 10th, the first play-off hole, with DiMarco needing to get up and down for par while Leonard two putted for his four. Singh had a gilt-edged chance to put the issue virtually beyond doubt when he drilled a glorious iron to six feet behind the cup at the short 17th but he pulled the putt left of the hole and settled for par, a mark equalled by both Leonard and DiMarco.

And so they moved to 18, the massive 500 yards par four known as "Dye-abolical" after controversial course architect Pete Dye. Singh appeared to push his drive only to get an extremely favourable bounce on to the fairway while his rivals hit a couple of beauties down the left centre. Singh hit the target with a superb seven wood, Leonard came up short left and DiMarco crashed into a bunker.

A few moments later, Singh was crowned champion and Leonard was left to ponder the fact that he had suffered a double whammy because only a win would have got him into the US Ryder Cup team. Instead, the last spot went to Chris Riley whose teammates at Oakland Hills next month will be Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love 111, Jim Furyk, David Toms, Kenny Perry, Chad Campbell, Fred Funk and Chris DiMarco. It was Singh's fifth victory of the season and worth a cool $1,125,000.

A day that began in highly promising fashion for the Irish contingent ended in considerable disappointment for first round leader Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington, leaving Ryder Cup team aspirant Paul McGinley to take most satisfaction from the four days. McGinley had his best ever finish in a major, a share of 6th, worth $196,000 which, when translated into euros, will amount to a handsome number of cup points. Indeed, my unofficial calculation last night was that the Irishman has now moved to 9th in the points list displacing Joakim Haeggman who in turn is pushed out of the top ten by Jeff Remesy. It is McGinley's first top ten finish in a major, beating his previous best of 14th in the 1996 Open Championship and 18th in the Masters. His round of 69 was just one of two under 70 yesterday, the other being a 68 from Open champion Todd Hamilton.

Darren Clarke's pre-tournament ambition was to get into contention at the week-end and he certainly achieved that. He maintained the challenge through the first five holes but included a penalty shot in a double bogey at the 6th where he explained that his right foot slipped at impact and the ball ended up in a hazard. "That killed my momentum," he agreed. "I got it back a little, but three bogeys in a row from the 15th made for a bitterly disappointing finish. It's very upsetting to shoot 76 after three really good days." Given that eight under was good enough for a play-off, Clarke was left with a lot to rue for a level par 72 would have put him out there with Singh, DiMarco and Leonard whereas 76 left him a share of 13th.

Pádraig Harrington moved into contention throughout the early stages of each day but flattered to such an extent that he shot 78 yesterday to finish one over par and back in a share of 45th. While stressing that his game is in good shape and he has no worries on that count, Harrington admitted that he was too aggressive yesterday: "I wasn't prepared to protect my overnight score of five under and became too aggressive, firing at pins which in hindsight I would have been wiser to stay away from. Overall, I'm disappointed with my performances in the majors this year but this was still a great week and this is such a marvellous course that I'm convinced I'll be back here for another major before my career ends."

To say the very least, Tiger Woods is not a happy camper. Last night, he was grumbling.

"I don't think they put any water on the golf course overnight. The greens were faster, firmer and harder and it was a different course from what we played the first three days."

He talked of his "frustration" at going a second successive year without a major title and added: "I felt like I was playing so well coming into this event and I was. I played decent on Thursday but putted atrociously and that put me behind the 8-ball. It was all mechanics. I just didn't feel anything at all."

Woods shot 73 for two under 286 and with Ernie Els's game effort falling just a little short, Tiger at least retained his number one world ranking for a record 322nd successive week.

Final round scores

(USA unless stated, par 72):

280 Vijay Singh (Fij) 67 68 69 76, Chris DiMarco 68 70 71 71, Justin Leonard 66 69 70 75 (Singh won three-hole play-off. Singh wins £617,521, DiMarco and Leonard £301,898)

281 Ernie Els (Rsa) 66 70 72 73, Chris Riley 69 70 69 73 (£146,832 each)

282 Paul McGinley (Ir) 69 74 70 69, KJ Choi (Kor) 68 71 73 70, Phil Mickelson 69 72 67 74 (£107,585 each)

283 Robert Allenby (Aus) 71 70 72 70, Ben Crane 70 74 69 70, Adam Scott (Aus) 71 71 69 72, Stephen Ames (Can) 68 71 69 75

284 Arron Oberholser 73 71 70 70, Brad Faxon 71 71 70 72, Brian Davis (Gbr) 70 71 69 74, Darren Clarke (Irl) 65 71 72 76

285 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 68 75 72 70, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 72 71 70 72, Stewart Cink 73 70 70 72, David Toms 72 72 69 72, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 72 70 70 73, Matt Gogel 71 71 69 74, Loren Roberts 68 72 70 75

286 Tom Byrum 72 73 71 70, Shaun Micheel 77 68 70 71, Chad Campbell 73 70 71 72, JL Lewis 73 69 72 72, Tiger Woods 75 69 69 73, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 68 73 71 74, Luke Donald (Gbr) 67 73 71 75

287 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 76 65 75 71, Chip Sullivan 72 71 73 71, Carlos Franco (Par) 69 75 72 71, Bo Van Pelt 74 71 70 72, Charles Howell 70 71 72 74, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 73 71 68 75

288 Todd Hamilton 72 73 75 68, Brett Quigley 74 69 73 72, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 75 69 72 72, Ian Poulter (Gbr) 73 72 70 73, Zach Johnson 75 70 69 74, Briny Baird 67 69 75 77, Steve Flesch 73 72 67 76, Jay Haas 68 72 71 77

289 Tommy Armour 72 71 74 72, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 74 70 73 72, David Howell (Gbr) 72 72 70 75, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 68 71 72 78

290 Pat Sheehan 70 71 75 74, Nick Faldo (Gbr) 72 70 74 74, Joe Ogilvie 75 68 70 77, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 71 73 69 77, Duffy Waldorf 69 72 70 79

291 Carl Pettersson (Swe) 71 71 76 73

292 Paul Azinger 74 71 74 73, SK Ho (S Kor) 72 73 73 74, Craig Parry (Aus) 70 75 71 76, Bob Tway 71 70 74 77, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 72 73 70 77, Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 72 71 71 78, Rod Pampling (Aus) 73 69 70 80

293 Jeff Sluman 72 72 79 70, Scott Verplank 67 76 77 73, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 74 70 76 73, Woody Austin 74 71 74 74.