Tiger Woods is halfway towards golf's first-ever Grand Slam of all four majors in one season.

With only a few minutes of light left following an earlier 49-minute stoppage for rain, Woods added the United States Open to the Masters he lifted in April.

A final round of 72 completed just before 8.30pm New York time gave Woods a three-stroke victory over Phil Mickelson, the nearly man yet again and this time on his 32nd birthday.

Woods, ahead on his own from the final hole of the first round, was the only player to complete four laps of Bethpage Black - at 7,214 yards the longest in the event's 102-year history - in under par.

Woods collected the million-dollar first prize - routine for him almost - with a three-under aggregate of 277.

Behind Mickelson, round in 70 for level par, came Sergio Garcia and Jeff Maggert in joint third on two over, and then there was a further three-stroke gap to Nick Faldo, whose joint fifth spot represented his best finish in a major for six years.

Mickelson had his sixth top-10 finish in the last seven majors, but he has still to win his first.

For 26-year-old Woods, though, that makes it seven out of the last 11 and eight wins in all - putting him joint fifth on the all-time list.

But it is the fact that he still has the chance of the Grand Slam which will be the talk of all golf heading into the Open at Muirfield on July 18-21.

Play was suspended at 6.03pm with Woods on the 11th green and Mickelson having just parred the 499-yard 12th - the longest par four in the event's history.

The storm was such that it was doubtful whether the round could be completed before nightfall, but play resumed just before 7pm.

When the left-hander then two-putted the long 13th for birdie the gap was down to two. But that was as close as Woods allowed it to get for the second day running.

In the third round he ended with two birdies in the last four holes to open a four-shot gap. This time he matched Mickelson's two-putt birdie - and Mickelson, playing in the group ahead, effectively did the rest for him.

At the 16th he was in rough and sand and missed a six-foot par putt. On the short 17th he three-putted, giving Woods another easy ride home. Bogeys himself at the 16th and 18th did not matter.

Woods is the first player since Jack Nicklaus in 1972 to land the Masters and US Open and so set up the Grand Slam possibility.

Nicklaus also came to Muirfield then - and lost by a shot to Lee Trevino.

Woods will certainly not be daunted by the opportunity. He has already done four in a row.

But the fact that his US Open-Open-US PGA hat-trick two years ago and Masters last year spread across two seasons it was generally agreed it was only a "Tiger Slam" and not a Grand Slam.

"I've done it before and I'd like to do it again," he said seconds after his victory, reopening that debate.

"I'm going to celebrate this win first, though. It was an awfully tough week."

A Ryder Cup atmosphere had been generated by the crowd at Bethpage State Park's Black Course and they were shocked when Woods opened with two three-putt bogeys.

But he responded just as most people would have expected him to - by stepping up a gear.

He played the next eight holes in one under before the suspension, holing an 18-foot birdie putt at the 489-yard par four seventh.

Ireland's Padraig Harrington, second at halfway, double-bogeyed the last for a 73-75 finish that left him a disappointing joint eighth.

High Wycombe's Luke Donald, meanwhile, threatened to be one of the stories of the day when he went to the turn in a mere 32 strokes to be just outside the top 10 on his debut.

But then came a double-bogey seven at the long 12th and three bogeys for an inward 42, a 72 and 10 over aggregate. He just missed out on a top-15 finish that would have guaranteed him a place without qualifying next June.

For Garcia the final group on the final day was a place he had never been before. He played just ahead of Woods when he was second to him at the 1999 US PGA in Chicago.

"If I shoot a good number and I win, great. If he plays well and wins, great," he said. "If I shoot 150 I'm not going to care - I'm just going to enjoy the moment and I'm going to have as much fun as I can."

The crowd was the most animated one in golf since the Ryder Cup in Boston three years ago - Mark James' famous "Bearpit". And Garcia was the one the crowd were most baiting.

"I know most of the people were rooting for me, though, and I love this country," he said afterwards.

The 22-year-old brought some of the trouble on himself by reacting to taunts on Friday and then by unwisely suggesting that play would have been called off because of rain if Woods had been on the course at the time.

After being slated for that remark and realising it was a foolish thing to say Garcia left a note in Woods' locker saying he did not mean "anything bad" about the world number one.

Woods has led or jointly led going into the last 18 holes of eight major championships. The previous seven he had all won too and in all tournaments during his professional career he has led 31 times and only four players - Ed Fiori, Lee Westwood, Mickelson and Thomas Bjorn - have overtaken him to win. He is that good a front-runner.

Ben Hogan might have done the Grand Slam in 1953 but for a clash of dates and Arnold Palmer lost the 1960 Open by one after capturing the first two.

Collated final totals (USA unless stated, par 70):

277 Tiger Woods 67 68 70 72 (714,285 dollars)

280 Phil Mickelson 70 73 67 70 (417,857)

282 Jeff Maggert 69 873 68 72 (267,261)

283 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 68 74 67 74 (186,269)

285 Scott Hoch 71 75 70 69, Nick Faldo (Gbr) 70 76 66 73, Billy Mayfair 69 74 68 74

286 Nick Price (Zim) 72 75 69 70, Tom Byrum 72 72 70 72, Padraig Harrington (IrL) 70 68 73 75

287 Peter Lonard (Aus) 73 74 73 67

288 Jay Haas 73 73 70 72, Dudley Hart 69 76 70 73, Justin Leonard 73 71 68 76, Robert Allenby (Aus) 74 70 67 77

289 Steve Stricker 72 77 69 71, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 76 67 73 73

290 Steve Flesch 72 72 75 71, Thomas Levet (Fra) 71 77 70 72, Luke Donald (Gbr) 76 72 70 72, Craig Stadler 74 72 70 74, Charles Howell 71 74 70 75, Mark O'Meara 76 70 69 75

291 Darren Clarke (Gbr) 74 74 72 71, Chris DiMarco 74 74 72 71, Jim Carter 77 73 70 71, Jeff Sluman 73 73 72 73, Ernie Els (Rsa) 73 74 70 74, Davis Love 71 71 72 77

292 Paul Lawrie (Gbr) 73 73 73 73, Jason Caron 75 72 72 73, Vijay Singh (Fij) 75 75 67 75, KJ Choi (Kor) 69 73 73 77, Scott McCarron 72 72 70 78

293 Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 74 72 74 73, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 72 76 70 75

294 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 77 73 75 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 79 73 71, Donnie Hammond 73 77 71 73, Franklin Langham 70 76 74 74, Kevin Sutherland 74 75 70 75, Rocco Mediate 72 72 74 76, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 72 72 74 76, Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 73 73 72 76

295 Kenny Perry 74 76 71 74, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 71 75 74 75, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 76 72 76, Tom Lehman 71 76 72 76, David Toms 74 74 70 77

296 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 71 77 75 73, Craig Bowden 71 77 74 74, Tim Herron 75 74 73 74, Frank Lickliter 74 76 68 78

297 Harrison Frazar 74 73 75 75, Ian Leggatt (Can) 72 77 72 76, Corey Pavin 74 75 70 78, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 72 76 69 80

298 Brad Lardon 73 73 74 78

299 Bob Tway 72 78 73 76, Greg Norman (Aus) 75 73 74 77, John Maginnes 79 69 73 78

300 Paul Stankowski 72 77 77 74, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 75 75 75 75, Andy Miller 76 74 75 75

301 Spike McRoy 75 75 74 77

302 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 73 79 77, Brad Faxon 75 74 73 80

303 Kent Jones 76 74 74 79, Len Mattiace 72 73 78 80

304 John Daly 74 76 81 73, Tom Gillis 71 76 78 79

307 (x) Kevin Warwick 73 76 84 74