Kapalua, Hawaii – Stuart Appleby thought he was cruising to a third straight victory in the Mercedes Championships when a glance at the leaderboard behind the 15th green Sunday gave him quite a shock.
There was Vijay Singh, one shot ahead with the kind of round no one thought possible at wind-blown Kapalua.
“I had no clue how he did that,” Appleby said. “I said to myself, ‘I can’t lose this tournament.”‘
He had to work extra hard to join some elite company, making two birdies on the last four holes to force a playoff, then beating Singh on the first extra hole with a bunker shot from behind the green that tickled the rim of the cup and left him a 2-foot putt, the most nervous he felt all day.
Singh, whose 7-under-par 66 was nine shots better than the average score in the final round, left a 100-foot putt about 9 feet short on the par-5 18th in a playoff, then missed the birdie putt to the right. Appleby holed his putt to join Gene Littler (1955-57) as the only players to capture this winners-only tournament three straight years.
“This one was the hardest,” said Appleby, who went from a two-shot lead to a two-shot deficit before forcing extra holes. “Obviously, I had to win a playoff against Vijay. He was the hottest player by far.”
Appleby became the 15th player in PGA Tour history to win the same event three straight years, and the first since Tiger Woods won the Bay Hill Invitational four straight times starting in 2000.
It was only the third playoff at Kapalua, but the finish was familiar – Appleby with a lei around his neck, the keys to a Mercedes-Benz and another great start to the season. He held up three fingers when he accepted his trophy, then held out his thumb and pinkie, Hawaii’s sign that everything is cool.
Singh would not come to the media center for comment.
Appleby won the previous two years by one shot, and both times it came down to the final hole, so it’s not as though he breezes his way to victory. But the pressure was on after Singh birdied the 16th hole to take a two-shot lead, then recovered from a bogey on the 17th with a simple chip to within a foot for birdie on the 18th.
“I had to do something special coming in. I didn’t do it, so I had to do it in the playoff,” Appleby said. “Winning the Mercedes is awesome. Winning three times is a dream come true.”
Both players finished at 8-under 284, the highest score to win in the eight years the tournament has been played on the Plantation course at Kapalua.
