No stopping rampant Tiger

Tiger Woods will be going for a third successive American Express world championship title at Mount Juliet in Ireland next year.

In Atlanta last night Woods made a successful defence of the event he won in thrilling fashion at the County Kilkenny course last September.

The world No 1’s latest victory – his fifth of the season and 52nd of his career – came by two shots over Vijay Singh, Stuart Appleby and Tim Herron at the Capital City Club.

With a first prize of £630,000 (€904,000), Woods moved up from third to first on the US Tour money list with almost £4m (€5.75m).

A month of the season remains, but if the 27-year-old can stay top he will become the first player ever to win the money list crown for five years in a row.

It was, almost unbelievably, his eighth World Golf Championship victory in 15 attempts.

The victory was also the 100th for New Zealand caddie Steve Williams and Woods said: “People have no idea how big this win is. I’ve been trying all summer to get him to 100. He has meant a lot to the success I’ve had.”

For the 34th time out of 38, Woods converted a 54-hole lead into success. There simply is no better front-runner in the whole of sport.

Woods was two in front with a round to go this time and although that twice came down to one shot, when he bogeyed the ninth and 14th, he was never caught.

Herron shot himself in the foot by three-putting the 14th and 15th and also bogeying the 16th and 18th, while Singh dropped shots at the 10th, 11th and 15th.

Woods bogeyed the last two holes himself, but knew he had the shots in hand. He finished with a two-over 72 for a six under par total of 274.

Meanwhile, Padraig Harrington birdied the last three holes for a 66 and joint sixth place, two ahead of Paul Casey, while Darren Clarke’s 68 for 38th place just kept alive his hopes of catching Ernie Els for the European Order of Merit title.

The World Golf Championships were introduced only in 1999, but with this latest cheque Woods has now earned a staggering £6m (€8.6m) from them. That is more than Jack Nicklaus in his entire 41-year, 18-major career.

Only once has Woods finished outside the top five – a first-round defeat to Peter O’Malley in the 2002 Accenture match play – and three American Express titles can now be added to three NEC Invitationals, one World Cup (with David Duval) and the match play crown he grabbed in February in just his third event back from knee surgery.

A record fifth successive money list title is not in the bag yet, though, and will probably come down to the season-ending Tour Championship in Houston on November 6-9.

Key to Woods’ latest triumph was his switch to a new Nike Ignite driver. It has indeed ignited things for him again – his last victory was at the start of July.

“I wanted to take advantage of the technology advancements and I’m pretty excited about this,” said the 27-year-old, who clearly needed to do something. He was 148th in driving accuracy.

“I started shaping the ball again and hitting some nice high draws. That’s what I wanted to see and I’m very happy with it.

“I’m just like any other golfer. I’m always going to try and find something a little better.”

In the first round he still hit only six of the 14 fairways and in the second seven. But in the third round the count was up to 10 and, with added length as well, his confidence was high.

So high he could not be stopped.

Singh has finished second, fourth, fifth, fourth and third on the US money list the past five seasons, but now must try to topple Woods again to add a first. It won’t be easy.

Harrington, without a win since May, said: “That was good to come home in 31. My game is getting back into shape.

“I worked hard on my mental game this week and overcame some of the tough mental challenges.”

In stark contrast, first-round leader Sergio Garcia dropped six strokes in the last six holes to fall away to 12th.

Casey commented: “I was sick at the beginning of the week with a fever and had my back strapped up on Friday. That wasn’t ideal preparation and in the circumstances to finish in the top 10, considering I thought about pulling out after three holes on Friday, is pretty good.”

Swindon’s David Howell was out in a best-of-the-week 30, but had to settle for a 68 and eight over aggregate, the same as Justin Rose. They were 28th, while Brian Davis and Lee Westwood were one further back.

Ian Poulter had no fewer than nine bogeys in a 78 for 13 over, one worse than Alastair Forsyth, while Colin Montgomerie (76) was 15 over, Phillip Price (75) 16 over and Mark Foster (74) 20 over and 68th of the 72-man field.