Woods's winning ways continue

Tiger Woods clinched a 10th tournament win of the year, spearheading the United States to a five-stroke victory in the World Cup of Golf in Malaysia.

Tiger Woods clinched a 10th tournament win of the year, spearheading the United States to a five-stroke victory in the World Cup of Golf in Malaysia.

Woods and Mark O'Meara, his two-time majors-winning partner, earned the Americans their 22nd victory in the 45-year history of the 32-nations tournament.

The Woods and O'Meara team recorded a combined 23-under par total despite second-placed Spain handing the Americans the fright of the tournament when they took the lead mid-round.

Woods recorded a closing six-under par 65, for a 21-under par total, to capture the individual trophy and set a tournament record after finishing nine strokes ahead of second-placed Frank Nobilo of New Zealand.

Victory number 10 this season for Woods leaves him tied with the great Ben Hogan, as fourth best in US Tour records, although the 23-year-old could make it 11 wins when he tees up in the Grand Slam of Golf in Hawaii.

"With the past champions on that trophy, it is quite an honour to be a part of that," said Woods.

"This year it has been a pretty good year, winning as many times as I have. I'm not going to rank them because each one is different. They're all different.

"But this stretch I've been on, and I've played five in a row now, winning four, well, I'm pretty proud of that."

O'Meara, who along with Woods was competing in his first World Cup, again singled out Woods for special praise.

"I can't reiterate how well and how great this young man is," said O'Meara.

"He's just awesome, pure and simple."

O'Meara battled over the closing day, recording a horror six-over 77.

"Tiger was on his game and I wasn't and it is always a struggle when you're not really confident, when you're not sure where it's going out there.

"But it's been a total battle for me this year and out there today, coming down the back nine, is the worst I've felt on a golf course for a long time."

The Spanish pair of Miguel Angel Martin and Santiago Luna, who started the last round seven strokes behind their more fancied opponents, forged clear at the eighth hole after Luna's fourth birdie of the round. But it proved to be the highwater mark of their challenge as Luna double-bogeyed the 10th and Woods birdied.

The American then birdied the next three to regain his side's grip on the title.

"Santiago's double-bogey and then Tiger going, birdie, birdie, birdie gave us the cushion we needed," said O'Meara.

"That's when we realised the match turned in our favour and it was then just a matter of not making any mistakes over the last few holes."

Ireland finished in third place at 14-under par, edging past Argentina with Padraig Harrington producing a best round of a four-under 67.

England were sixth at 10-under par courtesy of a 68 by Mark James and a 70 by Peter Baker. The English pair dropped just one shot each in their round.

"I played reasonably and I think today we scored slightly better than other days which was good," said James.

The Welsh side of Philip Price and David Park finished ninth. Price, who was 10-under going into the last day, recorded a closing 73 whilst Park a 69, the best of his four rounds.

Scotland, who have never won the World Cup, recorded one of their poorest results, finishing in 15th place with Colin Montgomerie posting his worst result, at one-over par, in seven appearances.

Final-round scores and totals in the World Cup of Golf in Kuala Lumpur:

545 USA (T Woods 67 68 63 65, M O'Meara 73 65 67 77)

550 Spain (S Luna 71 66 68 72, MA Martin 69 66 70 68)

554 Ireland (P Harrington 71 68 70 67, P McGinley 70 71 69 68)

555 Argentina (E Romero 72 68 70 72, A Cabrera 69 69 68 67)

556 Sweden (P Sjoland 72 66 69 70, J Sandelin 74 65 71 69)

558 England (M James 71 67 71 68, P Baker 71 70 70 70)

562 Zimbabwe (M McNulty 73 73 71 69, T Johnstone 68 70 68 70), Japan (M Osanai 65 76 67 65, M Harada 70 73 74 72)

563 Wales (P Price 68 67 68 73, D Park 71 72 75 69)

564 New Zealand (F Nobilo 69 68 68 67, S Scahill 77 70 76 69)

566 South Africa (D Frost 71 69 68 69, R Kaplan 74 71 70 74)

567 South Korea (K Wook-Soon 69 70 68 68, K Wan-Tae 81 69 74 68)

568 Denmark (A Hansen 73 75 70 69, S Kjeldson 68 73 72 68), Mexico (R Alarcon 72 69 71 72, JO Gonzalez 72 75 68 69)

570 Scotland (C Montgomerie 70 73 70 73, D Robertson 75 69 70 70)

573 Australia (P Gow 72 72 71 71, T Price 75 74 70 68)

574 Myanmar (KH Han 75 68 67 71, SK Naing 74 73 75 71)

575 Philippines (F Casas 72 69 73 71, M Pucay 72 77 73 68)

576 Netherlands (M Lafeber 75 70 69 69, J Steenkamer 80 73 69 71), Colombia (G Mendoza 74 73 75 69, J Amaya 73 73 73 66)

582 France (M Farry 75 70 77 71, J-F Remesy 72 76 69 72)

583 Canada (R Stewart 76 74 70 76, A Knoll 72 72 70 73)

584 Paraguay (P Martinez 72 74 73 70, R Fretes 76 76 71 71)

585 Germany (S Struver 71 72 71 70, H-P Thul 72 79 75 75), Switzerland (C Duran 72 71 71 73, S Rey 77 73 74 74)

586 Malaysia (M Ramayah 70 76 74 68, P Gunasegaran 76 75 73 74), Italy (C Rocca 73 75 76 69, E Canonoica 77 71 71 74)

592 Finland (K Wiik 76 72 81 76, M Lehtinen 70 78 72 67)

593 Puerto Rico (W Morales 74 76 71 74, R Castrillo 74 74 72 78)

594 Taiwan (C Lian-hsi 79 69 72 80, T Chia-huang 76 73 69 76)

595 Chile (R MacKenzie 77 71 73 76, G Encina 79 72 73 76)

615 Jamaica (R Campbell 74 87 82 84, P Horrobin 74 68 74 72

Individual:

263 Woods

272 Nobilo

273 Cabrera, Martin, Osanai