Stuart Appleby survived a late challenge from Vijay Singh to win the season-opening Mercedes Championships.

Appleby led throughout the final round but was made to sweat down the stretch before recording a one-stroke victory in strong winds on Maui's Kapalua Plantation course.

The 32-year-old Australian shot a steady 71 to finish at 22-under-par 270, while Singh carded a 70. Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland was third, five strokes off the pace.

Tiger Woods tied for fourth with South Africa's Retief Goosen at 277 before declaring he would have a long break before starting his 2004 season in earnest.

Appleby claimed US$1,060,000 (£574,000) for the biggest pay-day of his career and his fifth PGA Tour triumph. He qualified for this winners-only event by capturing the Las Vegas Invitational last October.

Appleby started the day two shots ahead of Singh and the lead never shrunk until the final hole.

He picked up four birdies and a bogey on the front nine to open a six-shot lead but bogeyed the 12th before Singh reeled off three straight birdies to cut the gap to two shots with two holes left.

Singh missed a golden birdie chance at the 17th, and a birdie at the final hole proved too little, too late as Appleby made a tap-in par for victory.

Collated scores and totals after the final round of the USPGA Tour Mercedes Open, Kapalua Plantation GC, Hawaii, USA (USA unless stated, par 73):

270 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 66 67 66 71

271 Vijay Singh (Fij) 68 64 69 70

275 Darren Clarke (NIrl) 67 69 69 70

277 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 70 64 73, Tiger Woods 71 70 65 71

278 Kirk Triplett 68 69 71 70

279 Adam Scott (Aus) 69 74 68 68

280 Scott Hoch 68 71 69 72

281 Ben Crane 71 74 66 70, Davis Love III 69 71 69 72

283 Jim Furyk 70 71 68 74

284 Jonathan Kaye 74 70 66 74

285 Shaun Micheel 70 71 69 75, Justin Leonard 68 73 71 73

287 Kenny Perry 73 71 68 75, Chad Campbell 71 76 65 75, Steve Flesch 73 72 72 70, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 69 72 72 74, Peter Jacobsen 70 71 73 73, Tommy Armour 73 71 73 70

288 J.L. Lewis 70 71 69 78, Fred Couples 69 72 72 75, Ernie Els (Rsa) 73 70 73 72

289 Mike Weir (Can) 71 70 73 75

291 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 73 74 74 70

293 John Huston 69 72 71 81, Frank Lickliter II 73 76 70 74

294 Bob Tway 76 74 72 72, Craig Stadler 73 78 68 75

297 Ben Curtis 73 80 70 74