Appleby's trek pays off nicely

Fate is a curious thing, as Stuart Appleby knows only too well. In the first place, he very nearly didn't get to Hawaii to defend his Mercedes Championship - the first event of the season on the US Tour - because of a hip injury; and, once there, he had his suitcase packed ready for an early departure in case his wife went into labour for the birth of their first child.

As it transpired, Appleby was not only sufficiently fit to play in the Mercedes Championship, he duly retained his title. In securing his sixth US Tour title, the Australian became the first player in 22 years to win back-to-back Mercedes Championships (a tournament confined to winners of the previous season) and moved up three places to 11th in the latest official world rankings.

Appleby's final round 67 gave him a 72-hole aggregate of 271, one shot ahead of Jonathan Kaye with Tiger Woods and Ernie Els finishing in tied-third.

World number one Vijay Singh, attempting to become a pillar-to-post winner having led for the opening three rounds, fell away to a final round 74 that included a triple-bogey on the 13th to finish tied-fifth.

If the adage to beware of the injured golfer was borne out, then Appleby's play over the final three rounds, when he kept a bogey off his card, fully merited his latest win.

"I've never done this before so it's slightly surprising," he said. "You look at where I was after round one (he opened with a 74), you would not have put any money on me. And Vijay, playing the way he has played, yeah, there were two scenarios there, two shifts. Mine where I played really solid for three days and Vijay didn't play as well as what he wanted."

Troubled by a nerve injury in his left thigh, Appleby nearly didn't make the trip to Hawaii from his home in Melbourne. On one day, two weeks ago, he attempted to hit some balls on the range.

"I went out and tried to hit balls and couldn't really hit a ball any good at all," he explained after his win. "There was just no way I could play any golf.

"Then I had to actually see my trainer at the time and just do some stuff, not golf-related at all. He said, 'How are you doing?' and I said, 'I'm struggling, I don't think I'll go (to Hawaii). It doesn't look good. I can't hit balls. I can't consistently put in two days where I actually hit the ball'."

"He said, 'Well, let's have a stretch here and let's see what's going on?' I had a stretch and I went out and hit five balls on the range, a different range than I was practising on, and that got me pumped enough where I drove back another 30-odd, 40 minutes to where I was practising in the morning and I go down to the range and hit it almost pain-free. I thought, 'Well, that's good, that's enlightening. I can see the light now'. I reckoned if I could get a another day like that in with another stretching session, I reckoned that treatment would carry me through to Hawaii and I would do the same stuff in Hawaii.

"That was the scenario and I was hitting well and I was putting well and I liked every part of my game. I had the ability to stretch and get better and the game was there, so I knew if I could get the body to keep up, I could go."

Once he got to Hawaii, he was always conscious that a call could come from home indicating that his wife was going into labour. "If I'd got the call, I would have been gone in a heartbeat," said Appleby, whose wife is due to give birth later this week.

This win has moved Appleby backs towards a place in the world's top-10, but he envisages keeping the game simple as the means towards gaining further reward.

"Golf's a simple game that's made very complicated through a lot of thought processes and actions. You know, you've really got to simplify it and keep it simple. And I guess watching Vijay last year was a great example of how simple he made the game look.

"Just bang, bang, bang, putt. When you play good-quality golf, the game does look simple, it's not difficult.

"I'm very much looking forward to this year, as any year. I think every player comes here (to Hawaii) and thinks, 'Wow, this is fantastic, I had such a good year last year, kick off with a good tournament'.

"Well, I've done that and I'm very happy."

Others, too, left Hawaii in the belief that 2005 holds much promise. And one of them was Woods, whose mission is to regain the world's number one position from Singh. "My ball-striking is there, if I can just get the putter rolling a little bit more . . . this is a game of misses; it's not a game of perfect. The whole idea is to control your misses," observed Woods, who won't be playing in this week's Sony Open, where Els will be seeking a hat-trick of titles. Among those in the field is Michelle Wie, who is playing on a sponsor's invitation.