Jim Furyk produced the goods with his golf putter at the vital time as he broke a two-year winless streak with victory at the Chevron World Challenge.

The Srixon golf equipment user shot a second successive 67 to gain a one-stroke victory in California over Graeme McDowell.

After holing a 35-foot par putt at the penultimate hole in his five-under-par round, Furyk then held himself together to knock in an effort from five feet for birdie at the last.

The triumph is the 39-year-old's first on the PGA Tour since he defeated Cleveland Launcher golf driver user Vijay Singh by one shot to land the 2007 Canadian Open.

He said: "Obviously it feels really good. After six weeks off I came in here with pretty low expectations. I hadn't played a lot of golf and didn't feel like I was really playing all that well.

"I struggled with my putting the first two rounds. I hit the ball very well, really crisp, and didn't get a lot out of it. I got out there today (December 6th) and I actually felt pretty comfortable with the putter in my hand."

McDowell, who was only called into the field as a late replacement for Tiger Woods, carded a closing-round 70 to finish one shot adrift, despite also holing a birdie putt on the 18th green.

Lee Westwood could have forced a play-off with Furyk, but missed a chip from off the green on the final hole and then slipped further down the leaderboard when also missing the resulting four-foot putt.

This put him in a share of third in the 18-man event alongside Padraig Harrington, who plays with Wilson golf clubs and also struck two eagles in his final round.

Westwood said: "This is always a great tournament. It's a nice one to get an invite to because it shows you've had a good year and you're up in world rankings.

"It was tight. That's obviously what everybody wants. You want it to be tight coming down the last few holes with lots of fluctuation."

Meanwhile, Robert Allenby made history by becoming the first Australian golfer to witness success in the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

Allenby needed three extra holes to see off Henrik Stenson after neither of the duo seemed to want to win the golf tournament in normal play.

The 38-year-old dropped a shot at the last after hitting a chip too strongly and then a putt too weakly, while Stenson needed three shots to hole out with his golf putter.

TaylorMade golf clubs user Tim Clark put up a bold showing at home in South Africa to finish in a share of third with Ross Fisher, who recovered strongly after a disappointing first 18 holes.

Rory McIlroy failed to complete the 12-man event after making the decision to pull out at the midway point due to a virus.

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