Tiger Woods secures WGC-Cadillac Championship victory at Doral in Florida

Tiger Woods secures WGC-Cadillac Championship victory at Doral in Florida

Woods never looked like surrendering his four-shot overnight lead and calmly compiled a closing round of 71 to post a winning score of 19-under and wrap up his second win of 2013.

Despite failing to birdie the par five first - The Blue Monster's easiest hole - Tiger holed a 19 footer for a three at the par four second and never looked back.

He made further gains at the fourth and 10th and then, just as he used to, put on a masterclass on how to lead from the front to give the chasing pack not a sniff of hope.

He did bogey the 16th and 18th but, by then, a first WGC win since 2009 was virtually secured and Tiger used the cushion he'd built.

Woods' Ryder Cup colleague Steve Stricker got closest but after getting to -17 with a birdie at 13 he couldn't exert any more pressure and made par at his final five holes.

Ironically, Stricker gave Woods a putting tip at the start of the week and it was Tiger's prowess on the Florida greens which went a long way to separating him from the rest of the field.

Behind runner-up Stricker, Graeme McDowell, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott, thanks to a fast-finishing 64, shared third place. McDowell double bogeyed the last to slip into that four-way tie.

Aside from Tiger, perhaps the happiest man in the field after Sunday's final round was Rory McIlroy. The world number one posted a closing bogey-free 65 to finish in a tie for eighth and finally record a first decent performance since his switch to Nike at the start of the year.

After their confidence-boosting weeks, both Woods and McIlroy had their odds to win next month's Masters cut, with four-time Augusta winner Tiger now the 9/2 favourite with Sky Bet and Rory 9/1 second best.