FINAL LEADERBOARD -22 S Appleby (Aus) -21 V Singh (Fij) -17 D Clarke (NIre) -15 T Woods (US), R Goosen (SA)

The Australian carded a final-round 71 for 22 under to keep the Fijian at bay after squandering a six-shot buffer.

Singh fired 70 to finish four shots clear of Britain's Darren Clarke (70), who birdied the last two holes.

World number one Tiger Woods and Retief Goosen were tied fourth on 15 under with defending champion Ernie Els 21st in the 30-man field of US Tour winners.

Appleby, whose fifth career win earned him $1.06m (�589,000), qualified for the event by capturing the Las Vegas Invitational last year.

He started the day two shots ahead of Singh and picked up four birdies and a bogey on the front nine to open a six-shot with seven to play.

But he bogeyed the 12th before Singh reeled off three straight birdies to cut the gap to two with two to play.

I wasn't going to let him [Singh] have anything - I just had to play smart in pretty trying conditions Stuart Appleby

The world number two, though, missed a golden birdie chance at the 17th, and despite making his birdie on 18, Appleby's safe par clinched victory.

"I realized Vijay was never going to go away. Eventually, he just ran out of holes, to the benefit of me," said Appleby, who briefly relinquished his lead to Singh after round two.

"I wasn't going to let him have anything. I just had to play smart in pretty trying conditions.

"I didn't need to make birdies. The way the pins were located, it was very difficult to get the ball under the hole."

Singh said: "Stuart did not play too many bad shots coming in.

"He was very safe. He hit the greens and two-putted. He never missed from inside four or five feet and on these greens, that's really good, especially with the wind today.

"I'm not disappointed to finish second, I'm just disappointed I didn't win. I just left it too late."

Woods, the highest-placed American in the field, was seven shots off the pace after round three and was unable to close the gap with a modest two-under 71.