Woods banishes swing demons to win in Australia

By Ian Ransom

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

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 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.

MOMENTUM

However, it was a saved par putt on the ninth that gave Woods, who struggled on the greens 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."