Ernie Els, putting brilliantly down the stretch, fired a final-round six-under 66 on Sunday to win the star-studded Memorial tournament by four strokes.
"Right now I feel like the best player, if you beat a quality field like this," Els said after beating Fred Couples by four with Tiger Woods finishing six off the pace.
The South African claimed his third victory of the year, including his second on the PGA Tour.
He completed 72 holes at 18-under 270. Couples closed with a 68, but it was tighter than the final margin indicated, as Els had to sink a testing four-foot birdie putt at the 17th hole to preserve a two-shot lead.
Els then birdied the last hole, while Couples' closing bogey was purely academic.
Woods, who carded a 69, made a move with three birdies on the front, but stalled with nine straight pars on the back to finish third, a distant six shots back.
"My putter definitely won me the tournament this week," said Els, who used his flatstick a career-low 100 times after moving the ball back in his stance early in the week.
He collected US$945,000, jumped to third on this year's PGA Tour money list and may surpass Vijay Singh as the world No. 2 when the rankings are updated.
Els has won 10 times globally in the past 18 months, and while some of those victories came against mediocre fields, it is still an impressive record.
"I've been playing consistently well for three years now," the three-time major winner. "I'm a different player than I was in 1997, even though I won the US Open that year. I'm more consistent than back then."
Els, 34, teed off with a 2-shot lead on Sunday and quickly fell behind as Couples made a hot start.
Els regrouped with a birdie on No. 5, one of his seven birdies over the final 13 holes.
"I think he's one of the best putters on tour," said Couples, the 1992 Masters champion. "He's got such a beautiful putting stroke. People maybe don't realize how great his short game is."
WALES OPEN
Britain's Simon Khan became the second successive surprise winner on the European Tour when he beat compatriot Paul Casey in a sudden-death playoff for the Wales Open title on Sunday, his maiden success.
Casey, three shots ahead overnight, led Khan by four strokes with seven holes to go but threw away his big advantage, only to birdie the last to survive to a playoff.
Both players finished four ahead of the field on 21-under-par 267, Khan closing with a five-under-par 67 to Casey's 70.
The duo scrambled par at the first extra hole but Khan claimed the US$450,000 first prize with a birdie at the second sudden-death hole.
Third place went to France's Jean-Francois Remesy who shot a 65 for 271, two ahead of Australia's Nick O'Hern (68). Colin Montgomerie closed with a 74 for a share of 15th.
Although the victory by Khan, 255th in the world, was not as big a surprise as that of rookie Scott Drummond's Volvo PGA win the week before, Casey, world-ranked 30, was a warm favorite to take his fourth title and virtually secure his Ryder Cup place.
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