ANCASTER, Ont. -- If the Europeans didn’t have their hands full in the Ryder Cup dealing with Tiger Woods, they can now add in his potential playing partner, Jim Furyk.

He may not be as hot as Woods lately -- no one could be -- but Furyk, who won the Canadian Open by one stroke over Brad Bryant with a sizzling putting display, is otherwise probably the warmest golfer on the planet.

He had been no worse than fourth in six of his past seven starts and recorded his 10th top-four finish of the year, and second victory, by fashioning a five-under-par 65 for a four-round total of 14-under 266. That edged Bryant’s 267, which included a final-round 67.

Sean O’Hair (68) finished third. Originally, Jonathan Byrd shared third place, but was assessed a two-stroke penalty for a bunker violation upon TV review and fell into a tie for fifth at 270.

“Hopefully I can keep riding the wave,” Furyk said. “Obviously I can say I like the golf course because I won, but it’s a great golf course I really enjoyed and to win the third-oldest national championship in the world on this course, it’s just a very proud moment for me.

“I hit some loose shots and was fighting my swing just a little bit. But I’m proud that I’m able to find a way to get the ball into the hole and hang around and score.

His six-birdie, one-bogey round broke him out of a congested pack over the 6,983-yard Hamilton Golf and Country Club. Furyk, who hadn’t played in the Canadian Open since 1999, hadn’t made the cut in four previous tries in Canada. He said he was attracted to this year’s Open by player word-of-mouth on the Hamilton layout, a 1916 Harry Colt design that was the site of the 2003 national championship.

“I remember at THE PLAYERS Championship this year, in the scoring tent, we were talking about set-ups of golf courses. I remember the scoring official talked about Hamilton and said he had never been to a golf course where so many players came in after shooting 75 or 76 and saying how much they liked the course. Now, that’s unusual for some of us. Usually when we shoot 75 or 76 we’re (upset).”

“There’s no question the best player won the tournament,’’ said Bryant, who birdied the 17th hole from 15 feet to give himself a chance at a tying birdie on 18. “There’s not many better players in the world right now than Jim Furyk.

“This was a pretty tough golf course today, but I figured that if there was a round of five- or six-under out there, Jim Furyk wouold be the guy to do it.’’

Bryant’s drive on the final hole slid into the first cut and sat down a bit. His 4-iron approach came out soft and stopped 40 feet short of the hole, a putt he didn’t come close on.

Momentum swung back and forth across the leader board the entire front nine, no fewer than 10 golfers within one stroke of the lead for more than an hour. The lead was being shared four and five ways at times until Byrd became the first to poke his nose to 12-under with an eight-foot birdie putt at the fifth.

Furyk’s putter, though, was the unstoppable force. He had made birdies from 26 feet at the third hole and 16 feet at the fourth to reach 11 under, bogeyed the difficult sixth, then came right back with a 15-footer for birdie at the seventh. He moved into the lead with a 10-footer at the 10th hole, then stretched the advantage to two with a 10-footer for birdie at the 13th.

“That surprised me,’’ Furyk said. “I hadn’t looked at a lot of scoreboards. When I saw I had a two-shot lead, I was kind of caught off-guard. I thought I might be leading by one or tied .’’

The chase pack had insufficient response. Byrd bogeyed the ninth and 11th, Lowery couldn’t get below 11-under and Bryant, at one point level with Furyk early, spun his wheels with par golf and dropped three behind before rallying too late..

Justin Rose, the 54-hole leader, tended to struggle all day, but stayed in the hunt at even par through 10 holes before a double-bogey at the 11th took him out of the picture. He finished with a 74 and tumbled to a tie for 14th place.