Woods wins in Australia

Tiger Woods celebrated his first visit Down Under in 11 years with a win at the Australian Masters on Sunday, the world number one banishing his swing demons in time to hold off a dogged local field by two strokes.

The only Irishman in the Melbourne field was Gary Murphy, who needed to finish in the top ten to retain his European Tour card. Murphy failed to secure that elusive top ten finish; however, meaning he will have to return to Qualifying School for the first time in seven years. Murphy carded a final round 74 to end the weekend one-over-par, a massive 15 shots off the lead.

Woods, joint leader overnight with Australia's James Nitties and Greg Chalmers, carded a four-under 68 to finish with a 14-under total of 274 in bright sunshine at Kingston Heath Golf Club.

Chalmers finished second on 276, with American Jason Dufner and France's Francois Delamontagne two shots further back at the A$1.5 million ($1.4 million) co-sanctioned tournament.

'It was a great day today,' Woods, wearing the tournament's gold jacket, told reporters after a five-birdie one-bogey round that was followed by a large share of the 25,000 spectators at Kingston Heath.

'Now I've won on every continent which is nice, except for Antarctica... To have won on every playable continent is something I've always wanted to do, and now I've done that.'

After wayward driving and putting saw Woods cast a dejected figure on Saturday, the 14-times major champion quickly found his groove during the final round with a birdie on the par-five first after splitting the fairway with his drive.

A pair of sublime iron shots on the fifth and sixth holes -- the first landing within three feet of the pin, the next two feet closer -- put Woods two strokes clear of the field.

However, it was a saved par putt on the ninth that gave Woods, who struggled on the greens on Saturday, an important shot of confidence heading back into the clubhouse.

'I left myself about an eight-footer for par and I made that, so I was able to keep some of the momentum I'd built up over the first eight holes,' Woods said.

After another birdie on the par-five 12th, it took a photographer snapping shots during his downswing on the par-four 13th to break his composure, the American ending with a bogey after fluffing a sand-wedge approach to miss the green.

But a birdie on the par-three 15th and three straight pars to finish were enough to shut out Chalmers, who had his chances to close the gap, but let himself down repeatedly on the greens.

'Certainly I did not play well yesterday as I described,' Woods said.

'I did some work last night in the room, had a pretty good idea what I needed to do, come out on my warmup today and I hit the ball well warming up.

'When I had a good number go ahead and take a run at the flag. I was able to do that today and I hit some really good iron shots today besides the putt at nine.'

Woods received a winner's cheque for A$270,000, less than a 10th of the $3 million appearance fee paid up between organisers and the state government.

Australia's Adam Scott finished strongly with a three-under 69 finish joint sixth six strokes behind, while former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy ended up 14 shots off the winner.