David Toms easily won the World Golf Championships Match Play Championship, overpowering fellow American Chris DiMarco in a record margin of 6 and 5 during Sunday's 36-hole final.
Clutch putting and a superb stretch of ball striking helped the 38-year-old Toms dominate his American Ryder Cup teammate and collect US$1.3 million in first-place prize money, jumping to sixth on the all-time PGA Tour money list with more than US$20 million.
"This is a long week and for some reason I had a lot of focus out there," said Toms, who posted the largest margin of victory in the history of the 36-hole final of the event.
"It just felt easy at times on the course, not to beat my opponent, but as far as the shots went and everything. It's probably the best week of driving I've ever had, and that was key for me," he said.
In the consolation final, South African Retief Goosen, the reigning US Open champion, beat Ian Poulter in 20 holes.
Toms improved as the week progressed and played almost flawlessly in the later rounds.
Toms took control of the match in the morning. One down after eight holes, he won eight of the next nine, five with birdies and three with pars.
DiMarco won the 18th, but Toms was 6-up at lunch.
DiMarco, 36, won holes 27 and 28, but the short-lived rally came too late as he simply prolonged the inevitable.
"That's the worst beating I've taken. I was three-under in the 30 holes we played, so it's certainly easier to take it that way," DiMarco said.
"If I had played horrible, that wouldn't have sat well, but he played great and you have to take your hat off to him. He's definitely a top-five player in the world, no doubt about it," he said.
Toms says he doesn't hit the ball long enough to have any realistic chance of being the world's best player.
"The way courses we play nowadays are set up, those guys [like Woods] are going to rise to the top, and I accept that, but I know I can be a top-10 player and that's what my goal is," he said.
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