Tiger Woods was in a league of his own as he taught South African Rory Sabbatini a lesson he perhaps should have learnt three months ago.

The world number one, on a Firestone course he simply loves, strode majestically to an amazing sixth victory in nine attempts at the at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Akron.

One behind Sabbatini at the start of a wet final round, Woods turned that into a masterful eight-stroke triumph over England's Justin Rose and Sabbatini with a closing five-under-par 65.

It was his second hat-trick of wins in the event - a US Tour record.

In the Wachovia Championship in May the brash Sabbatini had also been one in front of Woods after 54 holes and sounded off about how he fancied his chances.

On that occasion, Woods beat him 69-74.

Sabbatini's confidence had not been shaken by that experience and nor was he daunted by Woods' phenomenal record on the course.

"Somebody has to knock him down, you know?" he said.

"There's always going to be that point you get to where somebody beats you. So maybe Sunday is my day. That's the way I'm going to look at it.

"I'm going into it with full intention that I'm going to win. And if it doesn't, so be it. But you know what, I don't believe that in my mind it's going to happen."

The reality was somewhat different.

Woods went to the turn in 31, just as he had in their previous head to head, and this time thrashed Sabbatini by no fewer than nine shots.

It was a similar drubbing to the one he handed out to Stephen Ames at the Accenture world match play last year.

Ames thought he was in with a shout "especially where he is hitting it", and Woods crushed him by a tournament record nine and eight.

This time Woods hit his approach to the first to six feet, but although he made the putt it did not draw him level as Sabbatini had already made his birdie putt from 15ft.

However, there was simply no stopping Woods over the next stretch of holes.

Sabbatini was twice in the rough on the next and did well to save his par five from 10ft, but Woods was close to the green in two, chipped to four feet and, after making that for another birdie, sank further putts of 12ft and 18ft at the fourth and sixth.

Sabbatini, on the other hand, drove into the rough on the fourth and bogeyed, then failed to get up and down from shy of the green at the short fifth.

That left them seven under and three under, respectively, and if an incredible 15th World Golf Championships victory in just 27 starts was not quite a formality at that point, it certainly was after the ninth.

Woods was twice in the rough, but another indication that it was his day and not his opponent's came when he chipped in for par.

And with Sabbatini all over the place and taking a double-bogey six, the defending champion led by five from Andres Romero - and then by six when the Argentinian, third in the Open two weeks ago and a winner in Germany last Sunday, triple-bogeyed the 10th after an air shot in the rough over the green.

It was then merely rubbing it in when Woods chipped in yet again on the short 12th to reach eight under and eight clear.

The round was brought forward three hours because of the threat of thunderstorms and the players were sent out in threes. But one man dominated it.

In career terms this was Woods's 78th success, one which takes his earnings through the £44million barrier.

And that is just on the course. He is well over £100million when you add sponsorship deals and appearance money.

It was also his first win since the Wachovia - and his first, therefore, since becoming a father - and it takes him into this coming week's US PGA in Tulsa brimming with confidence.

Sabbatini can go on saying whatever he thinks as far as the game's greatest player is concerned.

Rose matched Woods' outward 31, but he had suspected that starting out on two over was too far back to have a chance of winning and so it proved.

Nevertheless, second place was worth having. Sharing it with Sabbatini with a 68 earned him over £300,000 and will take him into the world's top 20.

The 27-year-old, who had chances to win the Masters and US Open this year, demonstrated once more what an improved player he is.

He holed from nearly 20ft at the first, chipped to five feet for another birdie at the second and hit his tee shot on the 200-yard fifth to six feet.

A 30-footer then found the target on the eighth, and although he did bogey the 11th after pulling his drive into the rough and dropped another shot on the 14th, all the others chasing the runners-up spot made mistakes as well.

Rose knew the importance of getting up and down from a greenside bunker at the last, splashed out to 10ft and made it.

Chris DiMarco was level with him on the final tee, but found the same trap and missed his 12ft par attempt.

However, Sabbatini then birdied the 17th and parred the last to recover some lost pride.

Collated final-round scores & totals (USA unless stated, par 70):

272 Tiger Woods 68 70 69 65

280 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 67 67 72 74, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 72 71 68

281 Chris DiMarco 69 70 72 70, Peter Lonard (Aus) 70 70 73 68

282 Andres Romero (Arg) 71 71 69 71, Davis Love III 74 65 74 69, Tim Clark (Rsa) 71 70 72 69

283 Justin Leonard 73 67 71 72, Scott Verplank 70 68 73 72

284 Kenny Perry 69 69 71 75, Zach Johnson 71 65 76 72, KJ Choi (Kor) 71 73 69 71

285 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 71 73 74 67, Joe Durant 74 67 71 73, Arron Oberholser 68 74 72 71, Mark Calcavecchia 68 72 76 69, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 68 74 69 74, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 72 69 72 72

286 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 70 74 67 75, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 71 77 71 67

287 Charley Hoffman 71 73 74 69, Anders Hansen (Den) 71 72 71 73, Hunter Mahan 67 73 71 76, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 75 73 70 69, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 77 72 68, Luke Donald (Eng) 75 75 67 70, Lee Westwood (Eng) 68 71 79 69, Stephen Ames (Can) 71 73 71 72

288 John Rollins 73 75 68 72, Ian Poulter (Eng) 71 73 74 70, Richard Green (Aus) 73 73 68 74, Boo Weekley 68 78 70 72, Brett Wetterich 74 75 70 69, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 70 79 68 71

289 Adam Scott (Aus) 75 76 70 68, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 73 76 69 71, Mark Wilson 76 75 68 70

290 Paul McGinley (Irl) 72 74 73 71, Charles Howell III 72 76 70 72

291 Steve Stricker 70 73 76 72, J J Henry 73 69 74 75, Colin Montgomerie (Sco) 71 72 73 75, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 72 74 72 73

292 John Senden (Aus) 71 69 78 74

293 Phil Mickelson 74 72 74 73, Jerry Kelly 73 71 74 75, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 71 74 72 76, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 73 76 73 71, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 71 73 75 74

294 Paul Casey (Eng) 67 73 76 78, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 72 74 72 76, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 73 71 72 78, Troy Matteson 71 74 73 76, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 77 72 74 71

295 Vijay Singh (Fij) 74 72 75 74, Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 73 74 70 78, Woody Austin 74 77 68 76, Stewart Cink 79 67 76 73, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 72 72 75 76

296 Nick Watney 72 72 76 76, Vaughn Taylor 72 77 71 76, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 74 73 72 77, David Howell (Eng) 74 77 75 70, David Toms 76 74 71 75, Liang Wen Chong (Chn) 75 74 72 75

297 Mark Hensby (Aus) 73 71 79 74, Darren Clarke (NIrl) 70 76 76 75

298 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 76 72 72 78, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 76 74 75, Fred Funk 75 74 74 75, Graeme Storm (Eng) 75 72 76 75, Gregory Havret (Fra) 73 73 76 76

299 Paul Goydos 69 76 73 81, Brian Bateman 77 75 72 75

300 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 77 77 75

302 Chad Campbell 73 73 77 79, Anton Haig (Rsa) 77 75 71 79, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 77 73 81

303 Ben Curtis 74 79 77 73

312 Robert Allenby (Aus) 76 74 82 80

314 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 77 80 78 79