Tiger Woods Wins 4th Masters

Beats Chris DiMarco In Sudden Death Playoff At Augusta

(AP) 
Then, Woods made the kind of mistakes rarely seen from him in the final round of a major — a three-putt from about 25 feet at No. 5, a poor bunker shot on the 13th, all of them raising DiMarco's hopes.

"Anytime you can make him hiccup a little bit, you know you're doing something right," the runner-up said.

Woods last won at the 2002 U.S. Open, the 0-for-10 slump matching his longest drought in the majors. If that thought crept into his mind, he wouldn't admit it.

"Ten majors is really not that long," Woods said. "Some guys go 0-for-life."

No. 9 returned him to No. 1 in the world ranking, again replacing Vijay Singh at the top. Singh and defending champion Phil Mickelson played together after a dispute over Lefty's spikes, but they were the undercard.

Woods and DiMarco were the main event, posting 12-under 276s over 72 holes. No one else was within seven strokes.

"Twelve under is usually good enough to win," DiMarco said. "It's just that I was playing against Tiger Woods."

DiMarco became the first player in more than a quarter-century to lose a playoff in consecutive majors. He's the first since to even make back-to-back playoffs.

Last August, he was part of a three-way playoff at the PGA Championship, but Singh took the title.

If nothing else, DiMarco has shown he can go shot-for-shot with the world's best. The only thing missing is a major title.

"He'll fight you tooth and nail," Woods said. "He put up one heck of a fight."

Not much of a fight in the morning, when DiMarco double-bogeyed his first hole on the way to a back-nine 41. He made up for it in the afternoon, but it wasn't enough to keep Woods from restoring order to the world of golf.

Except for one thing.

"Every year I've won this tournament, my dad was there to give me a hug," Woods said. "He wasn't there today. I can't wait to get home and give him a big hug."