David Howell lived up to Tiger Woods' new nickname for him - "Cool Dude" - with a marvellous win over the world number one in Shanghai.

For the first time in his career Howell can now call himself Britain's best golfer. Just 11 weeks after ending six years without a victory the 30-year-old from Swindon went head to head with Woods and not only held him at bay, but left him further behind to take Asia's richest-ever event, the HSBC Champions, by three strokes.

Howell, round in 68 for a 20-under-par total of 268, collected a cheque for almost £476,000 and moves up from 19th to 13th in the world - above Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie.

With the tournament counting as the first leg of the new European tour season, he now stands third in the Ryder Cup standings behind Sergio Garcia and Montgomerie and can start making plans for a second cap against the Americans next September.

"As a kid I never dreamt I would be the 13th best player in the world, but I have an inkling I can go even further," he said.

"It's taken me a while, but I am coming to realise that I am pretty good. I am a better player than I ever thought I would be - and I am still not satisfied.

"It was more chaotic with the crowd than I thought it was going to be, but obviously I'm pleased with how I handled myself.

"It was a massive learning experience for me and hopefully it will help in the future. I was like a swan - all serene at the top, but paddling like Hell underneath.

"I was nervous all day, but I am not sure it was because of Tiger strangely. It was a big tournament, I wanted to win and I was more worried about how I would cope."

At the end the two players both had kind words to say to each other.

Howell told Woods, who had scored 70: "We are all honoured to have a chance to beat you and I feel privileged to be playing at the same time."

Later he added: "Tiger has become a legend already. Playing with him is like an FA Cup final for the underdogs."

Masters and Open champion Woods stated: "David has worked hard and that's what happens. You're going to improve when you put in time and he certainly has.

"I've made a lot of progress this autumn. Second doesn't feel as good as first, that's for sure, but some wonderfully positive things have happened."

Only one behind with a round to go, Woods never even got on terms and had to settle for a runners-up finish for the second week running.

Do not cry for him, though. It earned him £317,275 on top of what was believed to be an appearance fee of well over £1million for his first official event in China.

When Howell birdied four of the first seven he was five clear, but the gap was back to two after bogeys on the next two.

That was as close as it got, though. Howell birdied the 401-yard 10th from 10 feet and made the most of a lucky break two holes later when he did not hit the best of shots, but saw the ball make it over a bunker and roll up to 15 feet.

Woods followed him in there, but had to keep pressing. He also thinned a chip into water on the long 14th and when he tried to drive the green at the 288-yard par four 16th he pushed it into the hazard and bogeyed.

A birdie at the par-five last merely narrowed the gap as Howell took no risks there.

The last time Howell duelled with him was the Masters at Augusta in April. Woods crushed him 65-76 en route to victory, but Howell is arguably the most improved player in golf this year and he and Donald will start favourites when England defend the World Cup in Portugal this week.

Another Englishman, 23-year-old Liverpudlian Nick Dougherty, eagled the 538-yard last to grab a share of third place with Australian Nick O'Hern, while world number two Vijay Singh and Dane Thomas Bjorn tied for fifth.

Dougherty, the joint halfway leader with Howell, said: "If you had said to me I was only going to play the weekend in two under I'm not sure I would have taken it, but I'm proud of the way I hung in there.

"My swing is a work in progress and it's costing me. You can't win in fields like this playing badly."

Collated final round totals

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

(x) denotes amateur

268 David Howell 65 67 68 68 (£475,899)

271 Tiger Woods (USA) 65 69 67 70 (£317,275)

274 Nick Dougherty 64 68 73 69, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 67 67 67 73 (£160,765 each)

275 Vijay Singh (Fij) 67 69 70 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 67 69 69 70 (£110,793 each)

276 Paul Casey 67 68 73 68 (£85,665)

277 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 70 67 70 70, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 67 68 69 73 (£67,675 each)

278 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 66 70 69 73 (£57,110)

279 Paul Lawrie 64 75 70 69 (£52,655)

280 Lee Westwood 70 69 74 80, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 69 70 73 68, KJ Choi (Kor) 65 71 74 70

281 Padraig Harrington 69 72 72 68, Steve Webster 72 70 71 68, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 67 73 71 68, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 64 72 73 72

282 Paul Broadhurst 76 69 69 68, John Bickerton 68 72 72 70, Steven Bowditch (Aus) 71 69 71 71, Robert-Jan Derksen (Nld) 65 70 74 73, Ian Poulter 67 69 73 73, Pater Hanson (Swe) 69 70 70 73

283 Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 74 69 70, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 72 69 70, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 70 70 75 68, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 73 70 73 67, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 74 71 67 71, Kenneth Ferrie 66 69 74 74, Zhang Lian-wei (Chn) 67 68 73 75

284 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 70 70 74 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 74 72 69, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 70 76 70, Bradley Dredge 77 68 73 66

285 Richard Green (Aus) 71 73 72 69, Titch Moore (Rsa) 69 71 73 72, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 72 71 74 68

286 Graeme McDowell 70 67 75 74

287 Colin Montgomerie 74 71 68 74, Craig Parry (Aus) 71 72 71 73

288 Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 69 72 76 71, Simon Wakefield 68 72 77 71, Stephen Dodd 73 75 71 69

289 Wang Ter-chang (Tai) 71 70 72 76, Barry Lane 73 70 70 76, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 69 75 72, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 70 75 77 67

290 Thomas Levet (Fra) 70 73 73 74, Liang Wen-chong (Chn) 72 70 71 77, Euan Walters (Aus) 70 72 75 73, Lu Wen-teh (Tai) 72 75 72 71

292 Paul McGinley 73 70 71 78

294 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 72 76 76, Scott Strange (Aus) 69 76 76 73, Adam Le Vesconte 72 70 80 72

295 Chinarat Phadungsil (Tha) 72 75 74 74, Neil Cheetham 75 72 77 71

296 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 74 73 75 74, Richard Lee (Nzl) 68 77 78 73

297 (x) Hu Mu 78 70 81 68

299 Marc Warren 76 72 71 80, Lu Wei-chih (Tai) 71 75 77 76, Sandy Lyle 73 76 76 74

300 Brett Rumford (Aus) 79 72 73 76, Wu Wei-huang (Chn) 73 75 79 73

301 Mark Cayeux (Zim) 74 74 74 78, Huang Yong Huan (Chn) 77 76 76 72

304 Shang Lei (Chn) 78 74 81 71

305 Li Chao (Chn) 73 82 72 78

307 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 78 73 79 77

310 Qiu Zhi-feng (Chn) 79 74 80 77

311 Yuan Hao (Chn) 75 77 86 73