Invincible Woods matches Hogan's four-in-a-row feat

Tiger Woods took a sensational tumble from a position of seeming invincibility before eventually capturing the top prize of $1 million after a play-off in the inaugural WGC American Express Championship here at Valderrama yesterday. By beating Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez at the first tie hole, Woods emulated one of the later achievements of the great Ben Hogan.

This was the fourth successive tournament victory for the 23-year-old American, who has now won nine times this year. The last player to do four-in-a-row was Hogan, in 1953, who won the US Masters, the Pan American, the Colonial and the US Open.

"It's a great way to end the year and I'll be trying to continue to play this way next season," said Woods, by way of offering not a crumb of comfort to his rivals. Victory has swollen his career earnings to $11,315,128 which is twice what Jack Nicklaus earned in his career.

Then, with regard to events at the 17th hole, where his ball found a watery grave, he said pointedly: "It was unfortunate that people had to cheer when it went in the water. They got on us for the Ryder Cup and now they've done the same thing."

Colin Montgomerie saw Woods as his "banker", against the threat of European rivals Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood. And so it proved, with the remarkable Scot emerging as leader of the European Order of Merit for a staggering seventh successive season.

Still, he didn't really want things to end that way, much as he cherishes his continued dominance of the European tournament scene. In fact, he accused the game's administrators of "making a mockery of our tour", before adding: "If I hadn't had such a good year, all 20 European players could have led the Order of Merit by winning here. That doesn't seem right."

He went on: "As soon as I realised I wasn't going to win here or finish second, I lost interest. And that's a great shame. This is a wonderful tournament on a wonderful course, but I don't think a 38-week season should come down to one event."

Woods, playing in the third-last two-ball with Tom Lehman, stood on the ninth tee four under par for the tournament and a stroke behind Jimenez, who was two holes back in the last pairing of the day. Four holes later, after going birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, Woods was nine under par and leading by three strokes.

With uncanny timing which might have been geared to crush his rival, Woods chipped into the hole for an eagle-three at the 11th, only a matter of seconds after Jimenez had birdied the 10th. And it is to the eternal credit of the Spaniard that he kept up the fight, even though it must have seemed unavailing at that stage.

As another Spaniard, Jose-Maria Olazabal, put it afterwards: "Tiger is playing like the angels do." But even angels have been known to fall. And so it happened for Woods on the notorious 17th, by which stage he had carded his first bogey of the day, having failed to get up and down from off the back of the 16th.

Facing a tricky cross wind, Woods laid up with a six-iron second and seemed to have a relatively straight-forward third shot to the green, where the pin was only 10 yards in from the front and six from the right-hand side. In the event, when Woods' ball finished comfortably past the hole, it began moving down the slope, gathering momentum with every roll.

The player was so confident with the quality of his shot that he hadn't even bothered to watch it. So, he was startled when his caddie altered him to the sight of his ball racing down the slope and into the water fronting the green. "I hit a soft nine-iron of 100 yards and I don't spin a nine-iron from that distance," he said. "I watched the replay and it seemed to pick up speed as it came down the slope and past the hole."

In the event, after a penalty stroke, another pitch and three decidedly timid putts, he had run up a triple-bogey eight.

It meant that even after Jimenez had bogeyed the 16th, a par finish would deliver the top prize. And he seemed to have achieved the hard part with a two-putt par on the 17th.

Down the 18th, however, his drive was pulled into trees on the left, his second was on the lower slope of the green and his third ended in the back fringe. And still, the prize was almost his, when a return chip seemed to be heading into the cup, only to spin out of the left lip.

In the play-off down the 18th, Jimenez again pulled his drive into the left trees, whereas Woods was down the middle. And after the Spaniard hit his second into the green-side bunker on the right, the advantage had clearly swung to the world number one, especially when he hit his approach to 12 feet below the hole.

And that's how it ended. Jimenez overshot the hole with his bunker recovery and failed with a chip for a par. Then, as so often happens when a player has a putt in hand, Woods eased his 12-footer up the slope for a closing birdie and one of the most remarkable victories of his career.