PGA TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP Singh earns 2-shot win over Howell III

Twice before he had let things slip away, but not this year.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Vijay Singh finally earned redemption in the Tour Championship, but not before a brief reflection on his troubled past at East Lake.
Two years ago, he was tied with Tiger Woods going into the final round and shot 73 as both of them were passed by Phil Mickelson.
The real sting was in 1998, when Singh hit a 3-iron over the green on the 232-yard closing hole, made bogey to fall into a playoff and lost to Hal Sutton.
Singh had a two-stroke lead Sunday over hard-charging Charles Howell III as he climbed the steep hill leading toward the 18th tee, a light rain starting to fall.
The club selection again was a 3-iron.
This time, Singh was ready.
"I was practicing that this morning," he said. "I said if it comes down to 18, I need to hit a 3-iron. And that was the best one I hit. When I struck the ball, I didn't have to look to know it was going straight for the green."
Singh could have kept his eyes closed all day.
In his best ball-striking round of the week, the big Fijian missed only two greens and closed with a 3-under 67 for a two-stroke victory over Howell.
"The last two times I came over here, I thought I was going to win it," Singh said. "I've finally done it, and it's really something I'm going to cherish."
Singh took most of the suspense out of the final tournament of the year, which was just fine with him.
"The key was my golf," said Singh, who finished at 12-under 268 and earned $900,000. "I wasn't worried about anything else. I focused on hitting fairways, which I did. If you hit the fairways, the hole becomes so much easier. What won me the tournament was my driver."
Howell makes a run
Howell tried to make it interesting with a 30 on the back nine, highlighted by an eagle from the 12th fairway and a birdie on the 17th hole that cut Singh's lead to two.
Howell finished with a 66, the only player to shoot all four rounds in the 60s. Despite the close call in his Tour Championship debut, he had few complaints.
"Apart from walking up the 18th green and winning, this is all I could ever ask for -- to play in the last group of a Tour Championship, with Tiger and Phil Mickelson right in front of me and alongside Vijay," Howell said.
"I could have keeled over dead on the 18th and died a happy man."
Jerry Kelly also provided some fireworks, making an ace on the 205-yard 11th hole with a 4-iron, the first hole in one in a Tour Championship in eight years.
More importantly, it brought him to within one stroke of the lead as Singh was plodding along with pars.
"I knew exactly what he was doing," Kelly said.
Whatever hopes he had didn't last long.
Singh made a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth, rolled in a 12-footer for birdie on No. 10 and then nearly matched Kelly's ace on No. 11, the ball stopped 16 inches from the cup for a tap-in birdie and a four-stroke lead.
David Toms had a 67 and finished third, a solid end to a solid season, although he failed to win a tournament for the first time since 1998.
Tiger never a factor
Woods was never a factor after making a double bogey on the opening hole, missing the fairway, missing the green and leaving his first chip short.
He was at 4 under at the turn, just four strokes behind Singh at the time, and thought he still had a chance to win.
"I figured if I could shoot something like 30 on the back nine, I might have a chance," Woods said. "But he birdied 9, 10 and 11."
Woods grimaced after one shot on the 15th, and later said he's left knee has been acting up on occasion ever since he had surgery in 1994 while at Stanford.
"You've just got to play through it," he said after his 70 left him eight strokes behind.