Tiger Woods issued the invitations to the world's top players, and then proceeded to beat them all in his own tournament. The world's number one golfer produced a stunning final round 64 to overhaul overnight leader Vijay Singh at the Sherwood Country Club in southern California yesterday to capture the Williams World Challenge for the first time.

He donated the winner's cheque for $1 million to his own charity, the Tiger Woods Foundation.

In the end, thanks to a final hole birdie, Woods had three shots to spare over Singh. Woods, who had started the day four shots behind the Fijian and who still trailed him by that margin at the turn in the final round, hit a purple patch of form on the homeward run. He reeled off five successive birdies from the 10th to overtake Singh, and Woods never looked back once he had assumed the lead.

"This is a very special win to me, awfully special. I knew that I needed to put some pressure on Vijay coming home and I managed to do it very early on," remarked Woods.

Starting the final round, Woods was four shots behind Singh and, with no-one else making a real charge, the tournament developed into a head-to-head between the past two winners of the US Masters. For much of the duel, the impetus seemed with Singh - but a remarkable 35-footer for bogey, uphill and over a ridge, on the ninth seemed to act as a springboard for Woods who then could do nothing wrong with the putter.

Singh finished alone in second place, and Scott Hoch's final-round 67 enabled him to finish third on his own on nine-under-par with Bernhard Langer and Mark O'Meara tied for fourth.

Padraig Harrington (71) and Darren Clarke (74) had another disappointing day.