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Tiger Woods wins Mark McCormack Award

Tiger Woods is the recipient of the 2005 Mark H. McCormack Award after dominating last year's world rankings, Official World Golf Ranking's governing board said on Wednesday.

American Woods, who has claimed the award every year since its inception in 1998, has been the game's leading player since replacing Fiji's Vijay Singh on March 7 last year.

The award is presented annually to the player who holds the number one position in the official world rankings for the greatest number of weeks in each calendar year.

"It is always exciting to watch Tiger battle to be the best," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement.

"We congratulate him on another great season and on the accomplishment of continuing to be the number one player in the world."

Woods, whose haul of six PGA Tour titles in 2005 included the U.S. Masters and British Open, has occupied top spot for a total of 388 weeks since becoming world number one for the first time on June 15, 1997.

The award was established by the governing board of the Official World Golf Ranking to honour the late Mark McCormack for the significant role he played in creating a world ranking system for professional golf.

McCormack, once dubbed the most powerful man in sport, was a pioneer and founder of the sports marketing industry.

His International Management Group is widely known as the world's largest representative of sportsmen and sportswomen.

McCormack died on May 16, 2003 after failing to recover from a heart attack.

March 16, 2006