Little Australian Craig Parry became a million dollars richer on Sunday when he finally ended a 15-year wait for his first victory in America.

In his 236th US Tour event the 36-year-old known as "Popeye" stormed to a superb four-stroke victory in the NEC World Championship at Sahalee Country Club near Seattle.

And while he felt over the moon, Justin Rose could reflect on one of the best performances of his brief, but eventful career - a joint fifth-place finish which earned him £121,974.

Parry did not drop a stroke in his closing 65 for a 16-under-par total of 268. Compatriot Robert Allenby and American Fred Funk were joint second and world number one Tiger Woods, trying to become the first player since Gene Sarazen in 1930 to win a tournament on the US Tour four years in a row, fourth.

When Rose completed his closing 68 he was lying joint second, but Allenby birdied the last four holes and both Funk and Woods birdied the par five 18th to go ahead of him as well.

Parry, 118th in the world, owed a debut of gratitude to Woods - not for anything he did in this event, but for showing up at the New Zealand Open at the start of the year.

It was the presence of the Masters and US Open champion which boosted the world ranking points on offer and made it a qualifying event for the world championship. Parry won it.

Seven behind after his opening 72, the former European Tour member never shot worse than 66 after that and took charge with a hat-trick of birdies from the second.

"I had the mindset that I was not going to make any bogeys and birdies were going to make me harder to catch," said Parry.

"It's going to give me a lot of confidence knowing that I finished the job off here."

Rose had seven birdies and outscored illustrious playing partners Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson, but four bogeys cost him his chance of a sensational victory on his world championship debut.

The 22-year-old from Hampshire, who had not played a professional tournament in America until last week's USPGA Championship, said: "It was a bit of an adventure, but a really good result.

"I really hung in there and stayed patient. I've had a couple of Sundays recently where I haven't done too much the last day when I had great opportunities to do really well.

"I think I was trying too hard almost. Today I stayed relaxed and played it shot for shot. I didn't let the bogeys get to me and kept plugging away."

Collated final round scores:

268 Craig Parry (Aus) 72 65 66 65 (£650,533)

272 Robert Allenby (Aus) 69 63 71 69, Fred Funk 68 68 68 68 (£266,718 each)

273 Tiger Woods 68 70 67 68 (£139,864)

274 Justin Rose (Gbr) 67 67 72 68 (£121,974)

275 Rich Beem 74 67 67 67, Jim Furyk 70 67 68 70 (£97,579 each)

276 Steve Lowery 67 65 73 71 (£78,063)

277 Phil Mickelson 66 69 71 71, Matt Gogel 68 69 68 72

278 Davis Love 66 74 69 69, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 70 69 70 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 65 68 74 71, Vijay Singh (Fij) 68 69 69 72

279 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 68 69 72 70, Lee Westwood (Gbr) 68 69 72 70, David Toms 69 68 71 71, Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 67 67 74

280 KJ Choi (Kor) 73 67 73 67, Peter Lonard (Aus) 70 71 72 67, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 72 70 70 68, Bob Estes 71 71 69 69, Darren Clarke (Gbr) 66 74 68 72

282 Toshimitsu Izawa (Jap) 65 73 73 71, Kenny Perry 67 70 73 72, Rocco Mediate 68 69 73 72, Mike Weir (Can) 69 70 71 72

283 Chris DiMarco 68 70 74 71, Loren Roberts 70 66 76 71, Nick Price (Zim) 74 66 72 71, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 71 72 68 72, John Cook 70 74 69 70, Justin Leonard 70 74 69 70, Kirk Triplett 71 69 70 73, David Duval 72 75 71 65

284 Len Mattiace 69 72 72 71, Shigeki Maruyama (Jap) 69 72 69 74

285 Paul Azinger 68 72 73 72, Tom Lehman 72 70 69 74, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 70 70 75 70, Matt Kuchar 71 68 71 75

286 Craig Perks (Nzl) 68 70 73 75, Hal Sutton 73 71 70 72, Carlos Franco (Par) 75 72 67 72, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 70 72 74 70, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 69 73 73 71

287 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 71 68 75 73, Padraig Harrington (Ire) 72 70 73 72, Stewart Cink 73 71 73 70, Joel Edwards 73 73 71 70, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 71 71 67 78

288 Graeme McDowell (Gbr) 72 69 73 74, Soren Hansen (Den) 76 69 69 74, Notah Begay 70 77 70 71

289 Greg Norman (Aus) 69 74 73 73, Scott Hoch 72 77 69 71, Chris smith 75 73 73 68

290 Kevin Sutherland 74 71 71 74, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 68 73 76 73, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 73 68 79 70, Anders Hansen (Den) 71 76 74 69, Scott Verplank 71 75 76 68

291 Brad Faxon 71 72 71 77, Charlie Wi (Kor) 73 73 73 72

293 Paul Lawrie (Gbr) 73 69 81 70, Nobuhito Sato (Jap) 74 76 73 70

295 Paul McGinley (Ire) 79 69 73 74

296 Tobias Dier (Ger) 76 75 72 73, Nicholas Lawrence (Rsa) 76 72 78 70, Steve Elkington (Aus) 76 77 74 69

297 Phillip Price (Gbr) 73 73 73 78, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 76 74 73 74

298 John Daly 73 78 74 73

299 Mark Calcavecchia 74 81 75 69

300 Jose Coceres (Arg) 69 71 76 84, Scott McCarron 74 74 77 75

301 Jerry Kelly 75 79 74 73