Tiger splashes out in the final round. (Allsport)

Tiger Woods triumphantly completed his 16-round, 113-mile, 291-hole, 1,083-shot march into history on Sunday.

Golf witnessed its first-ever clean sweep of the four majors when this phenomenally talented 25-year-old won the Masters by two strokes amid emotional scenes at Augusta.

After a titanic battle with his close friends David Duval and Phil Mickelson that looked settled when Duval missed a six-foot birdie putt on the last, Woods rolled in an 18-footer of his own on the same green to accomplish something few expected to see in their lifetimes.

With a closing 68 and 16-under-par total of 272, Woods thus added a second green jacket to the US Open, Open and US PGA championships he gathered last season.

The world number one wants to claim it as a Grand Slam, but that strictly speaking is all four in one year. Maybe he can now end all arguments by going out and defending the other three in the next four months.

Woods has now won five of the last six majors and six in all in a career which continues to defy belief at a time when the strength in depth is greater than at any point in the game's history.

He arrived for the final round comforted by the knowledge that he had led going into the last 18 holes of five majors and won them all. Now it is six.

At the 1997 Masters he was nine clear and turned that into a record 12-shot, record 18-under-par slaughter.

In the 1999 US PGA he shared top spot with Canadian Mike Weir and beat Sergio Garcia by one. Then came the hat-trick last season which set the stage for this week.

Major championships have been played for 141 years now, but there has never been one dominated in the way Woods did in the US Open at Pebble Beach last June.

He was already 10 in front with a round to play there and won by 15; then in the Open at St Andrews he built a six-stroke advantage on the first three days and triumphed by eight.

Only one ahead of Bob May at the US PGA, however, Woods had to sink a six-foot putt on the last just to force three extra holes. Dramatically, brilliantly, he did - and May lost the play-off.

In the following seven months Woods won seven more times and took his career earnings to a staggering 27 million US dollars.

But all the time Georgia was on his mind.

With coach Butch Harmon Woods worked on shots he knew he would require at Augusta National and knew he would have to pull off to achieve history.

Five behind after an opening 70 last Thursday, he stepped up a gear with a 66 to lie only two behind at halfway.

Then came a 68 which he described as "plodding", but which was enough to propel him into the lead while all around were losing their heads.

Woods said: "It's hard to explain. I have a eerie calmness. I have succeeded in what I wanted to accomplish and it feels great, but I don't feel ecstatic yet because it has not sunk in.

"I was so zoned out I forgot what the whole thing was about.

"I think this will go down as one of the top moments in our sport and I am very proud.

"I have been very lucky and I've had some wonderful people supporting me.

"To see my Mum and Dad there was pretty special, although probably not as special as when I won here in 1997 because Dad had just had his heart surgery."

Duval, who had remarkably birdied seven of the first 10 holes but because of two bogeys was still involved in a dogfight, said: "I've been here before, huh?

"But congratulations to Tiger - to shoot 68 under the circumstances was outstanding.

"I played great, but I had a few opportunities I could have capitalised on.

"As for the putt on the 18th I probably pulled it a little bit. I knew I needed to make it. But I'm still very proud of how I played."

Almost as crucial as the final missed putt was the fact that he bogeyed the 16th, as did Mickelson, the only other player who, as the day developed, had a chance.

Duval has now finished second, sixth, third and second in the last four Masters, while third-placed Mickelson has had eight top-seven finishes in Majors - four of them at Augusta. They remain the nearly men.

Collated totals after the final round of the Masters at Augusta National, Augusta, Georgia (USA unless stated, par 72, (x) denotes amateurs):

272 T Woods 70 66 68 68 (£710,359)

274 D Duval 71 66 70 67 (£426,215)

275 P Mickelson 67 69 69 70 (£268,357)

278 T Izawa (Jpn) 71 66 74 67, M Calcavecchia 72 66 68 72 (£173,643 each)

279 J Furyk 69 71 70 69, B Langer (Ger) 73 69 68 69, K Triplett 68 70 70 71, E Els (Rsa) 71 68 68 72, C DiMarco 65 69 72 73

280 MA Jimenez (Spa) 68 72 71 69, S Stricker 66 71 72 71, B Faxon 73 68 68 71, A Cabrera (Arg) 66 71 70 73

281 P Azinger 70 71 71 69, JM Olazabal (Spa) 70 68 71 72, R Mediate 72 70 66 73

282 T Lehman 75 68 71 68, V Singh (Fij) 69 71 73 69

283 M O'Meara 69 74 72 68, J Parnevik (Swe) 71 71 72 69, J Huston 67 75 72 69, J Maggert 72 70 70 71

284 D Clarke (Gbr) 72 67 72 73

285 T Scherrer 71 71 70 73

286 F Couples 74 71 73 68

287 J Leonard 73 71 72 71, S Jones 74 70 72 71, P Harrington (Irl) 75 69 72 71, M Weir (Can) 74 69 72 72

288 M Brooks 70 71 77 70, D Toms 72 72 71 73, D Waldorf 72 70 71 75, S Appleby (Aus) 72 70 70 76, L Janzen 67 70 72 79

289 H Sutton 74 69 71 75

290 L Roberts 71 74 73 72, C Perry 68 74 74 74, S Hoch 74 70 72 74

292 S Lowery 72 72 78 70, F Langham 72 73 75 72, S Katayama (Jpn) 75 70 73 74

293 D Hart 74 70 78 71, J Kaye 74 71 74 74, B May 71 74 73 75

294 C Franco (Par) 71 71 77 75

295 R Allenby (Aus) 71 74 75 75