Tiger Woods never declared the U.S. PGA Tour's opening FedEx Cup as one of his goals. He just said it would be “neat” to take the season-long competition. But one thing he assured golf fans of was that he simply wants to win tournaments.

Woods won seven of 16 events, including last month's PGA Championship, which was his 13th major title, and the season-ending Tour Championship yesterday in Atlanta. He became the first golf player to earn the silver FedEx Cup trophy and receive its $10 million annuity prize, which the American qualified as a bonus.

"For me, I don't look at what the purse is or prize money,'' Woods said in a post-round press conference yesterday."When you play, you play to win. That's the way I was raised.''

The 31-year-old golfer closed with a 4-under-par 66 to shatter the tournament record and take the Tour Championship by eight strokes for his second straight victory in these PGA Tour Playoffs.

On his way to victory in the Tour Championship, Woods also violated one of golf's basic no-no's yesterday (Sunday) by hitting into the crowd in front of him.

It happened at the par-5 ninth to the penultimate twosome. Garcia needed extra time after knocking his second shot into the nearby first fairway and Johnson also needed three shots to reach the green on the 600-yard hole.

Right after them was Woods, whose strong drive still left him 286 yards from the flag. He went ahead and played his second shot with a 5-wood, aiming for a bunker, but he wound up reaching the green that Garcia and Johnson were still playing.

"Obviously, he didn't think he'd be able to get it there," said Garcia, who salvaged a par. "Somehow he did. It was no big deal."

Johnson appeared to be affected by that and he three-putted from 29 feet for a bogey at a hole that offered plenty of birdies. But he dismissed the breakdown in etiquette.
Woods apologized to Garcia and Johnson.

"I didn't think I could hit it that far," the winner said.

Masters champion Zach Johnson (68) and Mark Calcavecchia (71) tied for second.
Steve Stricker (67) tied for 17th place to finish second in the FedEx Cup, worth $3 million in retirement money.

This was Woods’ eight win by at least eight shots of his career as he increased his season winnings to $10,867,052, which is $38,114 short of the Tour record set by Vijay Singh in 29 tournaments in 2004.