Tiger
Woods beat Miguel Angel Jimenez with a birdie on the first playoff hole to win
the Valderrama World Golf Championship on Sunday.
Woods secured his victory despite a triple-bogey eight at the treacherous 17th
hole, making him the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win four successive
U.S. Tour titles.
It was
the American's eighth U.S.Tour title of the year and his ninth worldwide, in addition
to being his second victory in the three new world championship events.
Woods won the NEC Invitational at the Firestone course in Akron, Ohio, in August.
Colin Montgomerie earlier
clinched the European number one spot for the seventh successive year, despite
a closing 75, when it became clear his main rivals, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia,
could win the tournament.
Woods appeared to have thrown the event away at the 17th, a 536-yard par five
widely criticised for its design.
He stuck his third shot onto the green but it rolled back into the water. His
fifth finished in the back fringe and he took three putts from there.
Then he parred the last as Spain's Jimenez, playing behind him, parred the 17th
to leave himself needing par at the last to win.
But his drive finished partly behind a tree, his second finished short of the
green and he chipped too strongly into the back fringe. His chip from 20 feet
away hit the hole but stayed out, a miss that was to cost him $600,000.
Woods shot 68 in the final round, Jimenez 69.
In the playoff, again the 18th, Woods played it perfectly with a drive and an
approach to 15 feet as Jimenez found a bunker with his approach.
The Spaniard could not hole his fourth shot and Woods calmly stroked in the birdie
putt for victory.
