PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- He was fighting that bear of a golf course, Riviera Country Club, where so many of the greats had won. He was fighting the gallery, figuratively of course, which contrary to the etiquette of golf was rooting openly against him.

And most of all, as the lead slithered away Sunday in the Kikuyu grass and the bunkers and the chill wind off the Pacific, Rory Sabbatini was fighting himself, struggling against momentum, battling against misfortune.

Then, with that four-stroke margin he held at the first tee down to zero at the 152-yard, par-3 16th, Sabbatini, the feisty one, hit a brilliant 7-iron to 4 feet from the pin and made the putt.

"I was kind of stuck in a rut," he explained, “trying to let things happen. At that point my mentality changed."

As did his standing.

He again was in first place in the Nissan Open, if only by a shot over Adam Scott, who long before had finished, and in first place Sabbatini stayed.

His 1-over par 72 was the highest score for a winner of this tournament since Tom Purtzer shot the same back in 1977, 29 years ago. But that didn’t matter. Sabbatini finished with a 13-under total of 271, and now has three career wins, the most victories of anyone younger than 30 on TOUR, other than Sergio Garcia.

“What a relief,’’ Sabbatini said, understandably. “It was rough out there. It seemed I was hitting the ball well, but every time I hit a good shot, things would go wrong. I was in divots. I said to my caddie, ‘How can you be misreading putts by this much all day long?’ But then at 16, I stepped up and hit an aggressive shot.

"That was the whole tournament."

Other than the bogeys he had at Nos. 13 and 15 that dropped him temporarily into a four-way tie at 12-under with Scott and playing partners Fred Couples and Craig Barlow.

They love Couples at Riviera, where has has played more than 20 times and won twice. With Woods having withdrawn on Saturday, Fred picked up the legions of Tiger fans, who, well, were more than a bit boisterous.

“The Freddie Couples support team,’’ is the way Sabbatini referred to them.

Rory thought they were cheering a fine Couples shot at the 13th hole, but instead they were cheering a missed Sabbatini shot, the ball trickling off the green down a bank.

Rory Sabbatini celebrates his victory at Riviera Country Club with his son. (Grayson/ WireImage)

When asked if he was worried about blowing the tournament, Sabbatini answered, “Obviously. You always hear stories. Everyone’s a great commentator on golf on Mondays. This happened. That happened. I didn’t want to give them anything more to fire at me."

When someone wondered if Sabbatini had “chip on his shoulder,’’ he said, “I don’t know if you’d call it a chip on the shoulder or a monkey on the back, but I shed it today.’’

Sabbatini, two months from his 30th birthday has played six straight tournaments, not finishing out of the top 20 in any of them, winning one and coming in second in two others, including the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last week.

When a TOUR official told Sabbatini, with some $2.1 million this year, he was atop the list for the first time in his six years on TOUR, his wife, Amy, sitting at the back of the interview tent, let out a squeal.

“That feels good,’’ said Sabbatini, of being No. 1. “I’m hoping to end the year at the [top of the] money list.’’

A win and two seconds in six tournaments? He very well could.