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ATLANTA - Tiger Woods shrugged off a shaky start before cruising to a memorable golfing double today, an eight-shot victory at the Tour Championship and inaugural FedExCup honours.
Three strokes ahead of the field overnight, the world No 1 fired a four-under-par 66 in the final event of the FedExCup playoff series to leave his closest challengers trailing in his wake and pick up a US$10 million ($14.20 million) bonus.
After bogeying the par-three second, Woods rattled up six birdies and one more bogey with a superb display in receptive conditions at East Lake Golf Club, posting a tournament record total of 23-under 257.
It was his 61st PGA Tour title, his seventh of the year and his fourth in just five starts.
His playing partner and good friend Mark Calcavecchia closed with a 71 to share second place at 15-under with Masters champion Zach Johnson, who closed with a 68.
Woods had won 40 times out of 43 on the PGA Tour when holding at least a share of the 54-hole lead and a last-day crowd of 25,000 fully expected another victory march by the game's leading player.
They duly got it after an initial wobble.
Woods had his lead trimmed to two when Calcavecchia holed a 12-foot birdie putt at the first before both players bogeyed the second, Calcavecchia after finding the left bunker off the tee and Woods after missing the green short to the right.
Woods did well to save par at the third after overshooting the green with his approach and then picked up his first shot of the day at the par-three sixth, where he struck his tee shot to two feet.
Thereafter, he barely put a foot wrong.
He set up birdies at the eighth and ninth with precision approach play to reach the turn in two-under 33 and narrowly missed birdie puts at the 10th and 12th.
Woods picked up further shots at the 13th, 14th, where his second shot ended up three feet from the flag, and 16th before he bogeyed 17 after finding a fairway bunker off the tee.
However, he safely found the heart of the green at the par-three last before two-putting to preserve his eight-shot cushion.
Inaugural FedExCup honours were always likely to fall to Woods after he dominated a regular season of points accumulation that culminated in a four-event playoff series.
He led the standings going into this week with only two other players having a realistic chance of claiming the US$10m bonus.
His two main rivals for the accolade, fellow Americans Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson, ended up well short.
Stricker birdied the last for a 67 to finish at 274, one ahead of Mickelson who closed with a 71.
- REUTERS
