Golf: Woods Clocks Up £3.8m With Sixth Title

Thunder, lightning, apocalyptic rain, the cream of the world's players; nothing and nobody, it seems, can stop Tiger Woods, who secured his sixth successive strokeplay title yesterday when he won the weather-interrupted American Express Championship by eight shots - a huge margin that flattered the opposition.

For the record Ian Poulter, who bounced back strongly from missing out on last week's Ryder Cup, finished joint second on 15 under par alongside Adam Scott, with Woods's K Club compadre Jim Furyk a shot further back in fourth.

"A great performance," the Englishman said after picking up just over £300,000, enough to move him into contention for the European Tour order of merit title. It would be a mean-spirited soul who would deny the Englishman his moment of second-placed triumph but, really, he and everyone else were playing a different tournament from Woods.

As the Ryder Cup and recent World Match Play Championship demonstrated, the world No1 remains vulnerable in shorter, head-to-head contests, but over 72 holes of strokeplay he is without peer. Under the guidance of Hank Haney, Woods appears to have his swing completely under control. Gone are the wild drives that seemingly threatened to undermine the rest of his game. He finished fifth in driving accuracy here and third in driving distance. When he leaked his approach shot on the 12th yesterday, it was the first time in 36 holes he had missed a green in regulation.

"I hit the ball really well this week for 72 holes and it is fun when you can control your golf ball like that," he said. "All the things I have been working on for the last two years are finally coming together. It's nice that I'm getting the fruits of all that hard work."

Golf being a capricious occupation, it has to be assumed he will taste defeat eventually but on the evidence of the last four days on the outskirts of Watford it is hard to believe it will happen this side of Doomsday. A more enticing, not to mention more realistic, proposition than his defeat might be that of Woods winning all four major championships in one season - not that he would ever allow such an outlandish idea to creep into his thoughts, not publicly at least. "I'm going to get away from the game for a while, get in the water and do a little diving," he said when asked what the future held.

Woods began yesterday's final round with a six-shot lead, saw it momentarily reduced to five shots when his Australian playing partner Scott birdied the 1st, and then gradually pulled away. Tournament officials dragged the players off the course twice because of bad weather, yet he still went round in 67, four under par and a 72-hole total of 261, 23 under par. His was not the best round of the day but it did not need to be.

The world No1 took home just under £700,000 after yesterday's win. He has now won around £3.8m in prize money since the Open Championship in July. The World Golf Championships, launched seven years ago as a grand scheme to market the game around the world by pitting the best players against each other, has turned into a personal cash machine for Woods. He has now won 12 of these events, racking up £8.4m in first-place prize money in the process - not that he is counting, of course. "Wins," he said when asked what kept him motivated. "It is that simple." It is, when you play like Tiger Woods.

Hot streak


July 23 The Open

Won by two strokes

Finished ahead of Chris DiMarco to become the first to win back-to-back Opens since Tom Watson in 1982-83

August 6 Buick Open

Won by three strokes

Became the youngest man to record 50 PGA Tour tournament wins with four six-under par rounds to beat Jim Furyk

August 20 PGA Championship

Won by five strokes

Held off Shaun Micheel and with this title only Jack Nicklaus, with 18, has won more majors than Tiger's dozen

27 August Bridgestone Invitational

Won in a play-off

Birdied the fourth extra hole to beat Stewart Cink to the £695,000 top prize

September 4 Deutsche Bank Championship

Won by two strokes

Hit an eight-under par 63 on the Sunday to overturn Vijay Singh's Saturday-evening three-stroke lead

September 14 HSBC World Match Play

Lost in the first round

Shaun Micheel took his revenge with a 4&3 first-day defeat that freed Woods to visit Stamford Bridge on the Sunday

September 24 Ryder Cup

Won three points

His team's leading points-scorer - with Jim Furyk he won two matches and defeated Robert Karlsson in the singles

October 1 American Express Championship

Won by eight strokes

Wins his sixth successive strokeplay title with Ian Poulter a distant second