South African Trevor Immelman, winner of the Western Open, is not certain to play next week's Open Championship.

The 26-year-old's wife Carminita is expecting their first child, a boy, on July 27 and whether he plays at Hoylake depends on her condition.

"Very simply, it's going to be decided whether the little guy arrives next week or not," said Immelman, who held off a charging Tiger Woods to capture his first US Tour title with a 33-foot closing putt.

"I've always planned to have this week off at home in Orlando with her. If nothing crazy happens by Saturday, I'll probably go over to the Open and try to get back as soon as I can."

Woods, in danger of missing a second successive cut after an opening 72, burst through the field to put the pressure on Immelman, who had let slip two great chances to win earlier this season.

But after bogeying the 17th the three-time European tour winner produced the best putt of his life, up and over a ridge in the final green with a seven-foot break on it, to take the title by two from Woods and Australian Mathew Goggin.

"It's an incredible feeling," he said afterwards. "To hole that putt on the last gives me goosebumps thinking about it. I was just trying to two-putt.

"This game is so hard to fathom, you don't try to.

"It was utter disbelief when the ball disappeared. If I had to stand there with 50 balls and try to do it again, I'd hole one or two of them."

Woods, who crashed out of the US Open with back-to-back 76s on his return from the death of his father, was thrilled with the improvement in his game with his defence of the Open approaching fast.

"I made some great improvement on the range this week, working all those hours out there and working on all those things I need to hone to be more consistent.

"I started hitting the ball really flush and really controlling my flight. Shooting one over par (last Thursday) and still having a chance on the last few holes, I think that's pretty good.

"On tour nowadays you shoot one over par you usually get lapped, but I was somehow able to get back in the tournament.

"It was nice to feel the juices coming down the stretch where I had a chance. That's part of being an athlete - to feel that rush coming down the stretch.

"It's tough to have the nerves and control them and the adrenaline. It's a blast. It's actually a blast.

"This was only my second tournament since the Masters, so it's been a while."

On recovering from the devastating loss of his father Earl the 30-year-old commented: "It's one of those things where you have to turn the page. I'm sure that it'll happen.

"One day unfortunately I'll lose my other parent and I'll turn the page there as well. That's just one of the things you have to deal with.

"But I look back on my life previous to that with nothing but smiles."

Luke Donald's two closing bogeys for a 72 and joint 21st stopped him climbing back into the top 10 of the Ryder Cup table, but he will hope to put that right at this week's Scottish Open or, better still, next week's Open.

So too will Swede Carl Pettersson, who finished in a tie for fourth and remains ninth on the world points list from which the first five members of Ian Woosnam's side will come.

Justin Rose (19th) and Brian Davis (21st) failed to achieve the top 10 finish they needed for the chance of a place in the Open.

Collated final round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour Cialas Western Open, Cog Hill G & CC, Lemont, Illinois, United States of America

(USA unless stated, par 71):

271 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 69 66 69 67

273 Tiger Woods 72 67 66 68, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 69 69 66 69

275 Vijay Singh (Fij) 67 67 68 73, Jim Furyk 69 67 69 70, Stewart Cink 71 64 69 71, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 67 70 70 68, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 69 70 65 71, Tim Clark (Rsa) 70 71 68 66

276 Scott Gutschewski 70 66 69 71, Jason Gore 70 67 69 70

277 Kenny Perry 71 69 70 67, Heath Slocum 70 68 69 70, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 68 69 72 68

278 Robert Garrigus 72 64 73 69, Lucas Glover 66 70 70 72, Tag Ridings 70 72 65 71, Steve Lowery 71 67 68 72

279 Justin Rose (Eng) 71 71 65 72, Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn) 70 71 72 66

280 Brian Davis (Eng) 70 71 68 71, Charley Hoffman 70 68 71 71, Adam Scott (Aus) 72 68 68 72, Zach Johnson 68 69 72 71, Robert Damron 69 67 71 73, Rich Beem 72 67 70 71, Bubba Dickerson 70 67 73 70, Luke Donald (Eng) 70 67 71 72, Stephen Ames (Can) 68 68 70 74

281 Jerry Kelly 71 67 74 69, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 73 65 69 74, Nathan Green (Aus) 72 69 71 69, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 66 66 76 73, Robert Allenby (Aus) 67 70 69 75, Bill Haas 69 70 75 67, Sean O'Hair 73 67 70 71, KJ Choi (Kor) 68 70 71 72, Shaun Micheel 69 69 70 73, Scott Verplank 69 72 68 72

282 David McKenzie (Aus) 66 73 74 69, James Driscoll 73 65 74 70

283 Steve Stricker 71 68 71 73, Vaughn Taylor 72 69 71 71, Joe Ogilvie 66 69 69 79, Brian Gay 70 69 70 74, Davis Love III 67 70 74 72, Lee Janzen 73 67 73 70, Mike Weir (Can) 72 69 72 70, Shane Bertsch 68 74 70 71

284 Dudley Hart 69 73 69 73, Steve Flesch 71 67 70 76, Brandt Jobe 72 70 72 70, Mark Wilson 69 72 73 70

285 Patrick Sheehan 68 71 72 74, Billy Mayfair 70 71 76 68, Ryan Moore 68 72 74 71, Jamie Lovemark 69 72 75 69

286 Joe Durant 72 66 71 77, Jonathan Kaye 69 70 72 75, Mark Calcavecchia 71 71 68 76, Paul Stankowski 70 71 71 74, Len Mattiace 72 69 75 70, Brett Wetterich 69 69 74 74, Skip Kendall 70 71 69 76

287 Phil Mickelson 67 74 75 71, Pat Perez 69 69 70 79, Bob Estes 72 70 74 71, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 72 70 66 79, John Senden (Aus) 70 71 76 70, Brent Geiberger 68 72 70 77

288 Charles Warren 67 71 75 75, Jerry Smith 71 69 74 74, Robert Gamez 73 69 73 73, John Daly 70 72 74 72, Jeff Overton 68 72 74 74, Peter Lonard (Aus) 69 69 71 79, Steve Jones 71 68 74 75

290 Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 71 71 75 73, Tim Herron 68 74 72 76, Kevin Sutherland 71 71 71 77

291 Kent Jones 72 70 75 74

292 Nick Watney 72 70 73 77, Eric Axley 70 71 73 78