PALM HARBOR, Fla. --- Retief Goosen took an important step toward rejoining the elite in golf Sunday by closing with 1-under 70 for a one-shot victory in the Transitions Championship, his first PGA Tour win in nearly four years.

Goosen had a two-shot lead with three holes to play on the demanding Copperhead Course at Innisbrook when, just like everyone else, he struggled to hang on. The two-time U.S. Open champion barely made it.

Needing only two putts from 25 feet for the win, he watched his first putt roll 5 feet past the hole. His par putt curled in the side of the cup, giving him a one-shot victory over Charles Howell and Brett Quigley.

"Eventually, you wonder if you can still do it," Goosen said.

Howell, an Augusta native who has to win over the next two weeks to earn a trip to the Masters Tournament, made bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes and couldn't find any birdies to catch up. He shot 69 for his best finish since winning at Riviera two years ago.

Quigley is 0-for-342 in his 13 years on the PGA Tour, but he was bogey-free on the back nine and closed with 68 for his second runner-up finish in two weeks.

Former Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman, trying to become the seventh player in his 50s to win on the PGA Tour, didn't make a birdie until a long putt on the 17th hole, and he shot 75 to tie for eighth.

Goosen, a 40-year-old South African who was part of the "Big Three" in the world ranking three years ago, nearly fell out of the top 50 until he overcame some problems with corrective eye surgery and worked hard on his fitness, dropping about 20 pounds.

He won on the South African and Asian tours during the fall, but this was a big breakthrough -- especially with the Masters coming up.

Goosen finished at 8-under 276 and won for the seventh time on the PGA Tour. It was his second victory at Innisbrook, having also won in 2003.

Howell, who hasn't missed the Masters since 2002, caught Goosen with a 12-foot birdie on the 14th. But his next tee shot was buried in deep rough just right of the 15th green, and with only 25 feet to the pin, he flubbed his chip. He made bogey, then missed the 16th green well to the right and made another bogey.

"You ride on such a thin line on a track like this, where you just know every bogey hurts more than most, because you know it's so much harder to make up," Howell said.