By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent, Augusta

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Every winner of the Masters is asked the same question. Now what about the Grand Slam?

But the answer Tiger Woods gave at Augusta last night after his third victory in six years - and seventh major in all - was different to that given by anybody else.

"Well, I've done four in a row before," said the world number one, gifted another green jacket by the spectacular errors of Ernie Els and Vijay Singh and the failure of others to challenge him when the chance was there.

Indeed he has. Last April Woods completed a clean sweep of the four majors, but because it wasn't in one year it wasn't declared golf's first-ever Grand Slam.

Woods himself felt it was enough to be able to parade all four trophies on his coffee table, but he added: "It would be nice to do it in the same year.

"It would be different to how I did it the last time."

The next obvious question is: who can stop him? And the answer to that seems to be only himself.

For all his seven major victories he has led with a round to play and nobody could get the better of him.

A stronger leaderboard it is hard to imagine than the one this year's Masters paraded entering the final round. But only Woods was up to the task.

The 26-year-old joined Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo as the only men to make a successful defence at Augusta National and six victories in the last 10 majors means he is in a league of his own right now when it comes to the big occasion.

On the toughened-up course he finished 12 under par, with reigning US Open champion Retief Goosen runner-up on nine under and world number two Phil Mickelson third for the second year running one further back.

Els and Singh were joint second entering the closing stretch, but Els took a triple bogey eight on the 510-yard 13th and Singh a quadruple bogey nine at the 500-yard 15th.

Els said: "I made a terrible swing on the 13th and it cost me the tournament.

"I got greedy. I tried to hook a three-wood round the corner and it's not the shot to play any more. I knew that before the tournament, but I didn't listen to myself.

"I normally play the back nine great and I knew 13 was an eagle opportunity. But it didn't turn out that way."

Singh had laid up on the 15th, then twice pitched into water.

That allowed Goosen to finish second, but that was not what he was looking for after teeing off joint leader. He shot himself in the foot with a string of poor iron shots which led to four three-putts.

At least the South African has a major, even if it is only on loan from Woods. Mickelson is still searching for his first and so is Sergio Garcia, who dropped to eighth with a closing 75.

"I didn't play that bad, but I had bogeys on one and four and when you start like that you try and force it," said the 22-year-old Spaniard. "It wasn't meant to be."

After a week that saw Arnold Palmer quit major championship golf, Woods now has only Palmer and Nicklaus ahead of him in the Masters Hall of Fame. Palmer won four green jackets, Nicklaus six.

"It's pretty neat to be able to have my name mentioned alongside some of the golfing greats, especially at this tournament," he commented.

"This tournament is obviously very historic and very special to all the players. It's one we really want to win and to be able to put my name on that trophy three times is really cool."

Nicklaus' 18 professional majors is another obvious target and Woods is ahead of schedule. The Golden Bear was 27 when he won his seventh major.

"It would be nice to win as many majors as Jack did. But if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen," said Woods.

"I want to become a better player at the end of each year than I was at the beginning. If I keep doing that year after year for the rest of my career, I'll have a pretty good one."

Reflecting on his latest win Woods said: "I hit some good shots and made a couple of good putts (plus a chip-in) when I absolutely needed them.

"I was able to out-last the guys, but it was a lot tighter than people thought. Anything can happen around Amen Corner or at the 15th."

Not to him, though, it seems.

"It helps knowing what it takes to win here. I've been in the final group twice before and I know how to handle my emotions," he said.

"Last year was a mental test of trying to block out having the chance to win all four major championships in a row. This year was more of a physical test. I'm tired, man, I really am."

Goosen said: "You just know Tiger's not going to make any big mistakes.

"Give him a couple more years and I think he will be even greater than Jack Nicklaus. It's just a matter of time."