Woods celebrates on the 18th green. (Allsport)

Tiger Woods joined Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only men to make a successful defence of the Masters at Augusta.

But it was more the blunders of others than his own undoubted brilliance which took the 26-year-old world number one to a three-stroke win over Retief Goosen - the seventh major of his career and sixth victory in the last 10 majors.

Back at the place where last year he completed golf's first-ever clean sweep of the biggest four titles in the game, Woods fired a closing 71 for a 12 under par total of 276.

Now only five players are ahead of him in the all-time list and on this evidence it might only be two - Nicklaus with 18 and Walter Hagen with 11 - by the end of this season.

The 1997 Masters, his first major as a professional, will be remembered for him becoming the youngest-ever winner and doing so by a record 12-shot margin and with a record 18 under par aggregate.

Last year will be recalled for his "Tiger Slam" of the majors and for the way he held off David Duval and Phil Mickelson when it came to the crunch. This year's event will go down as the one handed to him on a plate.

First Retief Goosen, the joint overnight leader, had three three-putts in an outward 39 to fall out of the hunt.

Then Ernie Els, having climbed into a tie for second place, crashed to a triple bogey eight at the 510-yard 13th, twice going into Rae's Creek.

And then Vijay Singh, the one remaining challenger unless Woods self-destructed over the closing stretch, followed the South African into the same stretch of the creek when three behind.

But that was only a portent of what was to follow. The Fijian, winner two years ago, got out of the hole with a par five, but then bogeyed the 14th and at the long 15th, quite incredibly, twice pitched into the lake and walked off with a quadruple bogey nine.

Woods was not error-free, three-putting himself at the fifth and bogeying the 11th as well. But those mistakes were offset by birdies at the second, third and sixth, where he chipped in from 20 feet.

After the others had shot themselves in the foot, he calmly birdied the 15th to move five clear and a bogey at the 17th was no cause for concern.

His walk up the last - the hole lengthened to 465 yards to provide a more fitting finale - was just a victory march.

Goosen recovered from his start to birdie the 15th and 16th and so make Mickelson third for the second year running.

Jose Maria Olazabal, unable to mount the charge he hoped, was fourth and joint fifth with Els was Ireland's Padraig Harrington.

Els said: "I made a terrible swing on the 13th and it cost me the tournament. It was not through the lack of trying, though.

"I got greedy. I tried to hook a three-wood round the corner and it's not the shot to play any more (it is another of the lengthened holes). I knew that before the tournament."

Mickelson said: "I'm not overly disappointed. I felt I got a couple of unfortunate breaks early on to stop my momentum. But I had a fun week."

Harrington's chances had effectively gone at the final hole of his third round, a double bogey six.

The Dubliner, who led by three on Thursday after six birdies in the first 11 holes, closed with a 71 and said: "I was very frustrated at the start of the last round.

"I played some excellent golf, but kept having 12-footers downhill."

He was delighted to par the 18th on his return with a 15-foot putt.

"That putt has me freaked out," he said. "I'm going to have to practise it a lot next year.

"Considering my grip drove me up the wall all week and I didn't hole that many putts I can't be unhappy."

Garcia was bitterly disappointed not to shoot better than 75 on the last day, having set off only four behind. He, like Goosen, three-putted the first and could not never get going after that.

Colin Montgomerie (71) and Nick Faldo (72) were joint 14th on one under. Paul McGinley's 71 left him 18th on level par and so he missed out on earning a second trip to Augusta by one stroke.

Darren Clarke (72) finished 20th on one over, but Lee Westwood dropped to 44th with a 76.

Goosen and the rest needed no reminding of the size of the task facing them in the final round.

It was not just that Woods is already, at the still tender age of 26, an Augusta National course specialist, having won his first major title there in 1997 with a record 18 under par score and by a record 12-stroke margin and then completing his clean sweep of the majors there last April at 16 under par.

It was the fact that, wherever he is, Woods is awfully difficult to shift when he leads either on his own or with somebody else with a round to play.

He has been in that position 30 times in his glittering career and on only four occasions has he been overhauled.

Little-known Ed Fiori first earned that distinction at the 1996 Quad City Classic, Woods' third event as a professional. Ahead by one after 54 holes, Woods shot a level par 72 and lost by four.

Westwood was the second player to come from behind and topple Woods.

That was at the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Hamburg two years ago. Woods held a two-stroke advantage there entering the final round, but Westwood fired a dazzling 64 and Woods' 70 left him third.

Later that season Mickelson won the Tour Championship, coming from two behind Woods on the last day, and in March last year Thomas Bjorn, after a terrific 72-hole head-to-head battle with the world number one, took the Dubai Desert Classic when Woods finished with a double bogey seven.

In his first six major victories Woods led on his own with a round to go five times and was joint leader once.

In other words, he had never lost a last-day lead in either the Masters, US Open or US PGA championship, though it did take him a play-off to get the better of Bob May at the 2000 US PGA.

And he still hasn't.

Collated final-round scores (US unless stated):

276 Tiger Woods 70 69 66 71 (£720,000)

279 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 69 67 69 74 (£432,000)

280 Phil Mickelson 69 72 68 71 (£272,000)

281 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 70 69 71 71 (£192,000)

282 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 69 70 72 71, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 67 72 73 (£152,000 each)

283 Vijay Singh (Fij) 70 65 72 76 (£134,000)

284 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 68 71 70 75 (£124,000)

285 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 71 74 70, Adam Scott (Aus) 71 72 72 70, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 68 71 73 73

286 Brad Faxon 71 75 69 71, Chris DiMarco 70 71 72 73

287 Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 75 72 73 67, Colin Montgomerie (Gbr) 75 71 70 71, Davis Love 67 75 74 71, Nick Faldo (Gbr) 75 67 73 72, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 74 67 70 76

288 Paul McGinley (Irl) 72 74 71 71

289 Justin Leonard 70 75 74 70, Jerry Kelly 72 74 71 72, Darren Clarke (Gbr) 70 74 73 72, Nick Price (Zim) 70 76 70 73

290 Mark Brooks 74 72 71 73, Tom Pernice 74 72 71 73, Jeff Sluman 73 72 71 74, Stewart Cink 74 70 72 74, Mike Weir (Can) 72 71 71 76

291 Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 70 76 72, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 70 72 77 72, Charles Howell 74 73 71 73

292 Craig Stadler 73 72 76 71, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 73 72 73 74, John Daly 74 73 70 75, Billy Mayfair 74 71 72 75

294 David Toms 73 74 76 71, Fred Couples 73 73 76 72, Rocco Mediate 75 68 77 74, Greg Norman (Aus) 71 76 72 75

295 Tom Watson 71 76 76 72, Steve Lowery 75 71 76 73, Kirk Triplett 74 70 74 77

296 Scott Verplank 70 75 76 75

297 Lee Westwood (Gbr) 75 72 74 76

298 Bob Estes 73 72 75 78