Ten years to the day he turned professional Tiger Woods reminded everybody on Sunday that he is human - and still he won.

After losing a three-stroke lead in the last five holes Woods registered his fourth straight victory - and fifth in eight years at Firestone Country Club in Akron - by beating fellow American Stewart Cink at the fourth hole of a play-off.

An eight-foot birdie putt gave the world number one the first prize of nearly £700,000 after they had tied on the 10 under par mark of 270. It was Woods' 13th play-off win in 15 attempts.

As at the Open last month and the US PGA championship last week, a European suffered playing with Woods in the final round.

Paul Casey led by one with nine holes to play - and Woods was not even the player right on his heels at that moment.

But while the Englishman bogeyed the 11th and 13th the world number one sank birdie putts of 10 feet on the 10th, 35 feet at the 12th and then a 22-footer on the following green.

Suddenly he was three strokes clear and nobody expected any result other than another Woods win.

But it was a long time in coming. A drive into the trees on the long 16th led to a bogey six and Cink birdied that and the next to draw level.

Just as two years ago Cink was trying to lift the title six days after being handed a Ryder Cup wild card. But, five years after Woods needed seven extra holes to defeat Jim Furyk on the course, the 30-year-old was not to be denied again.

Amazingly, that makes it nine titles out of 14 in the two World Golf Championships stroke play events since they started in 1999. And his total earnings from the series is now a staggering US dollars 15million - US dollars 16million if you add two annual bonuses he was given.

Woods and Cink finished one ahead of Furyk, with Casey, three over par for the last eight holes, finishing only joint fourth in the end.

"I'm very happy with that," he said. "First time ever playing in the final group on a Sunday (in America) and with Tiger as well that was an experience.

"I thought I played okay. I just didn't make anything on the back nine and was a little bit unlucky on the 16th." His pitch to the par five spun back into the water.

"It's the softest I've seen that green in four or five years of being here," Casey added.

The compensation for the Surrey golfer is that his second Ryder Cup cap is secure and there will be no need for sweating at this coming week's BMW International Open in Munich, the final qualifying event.

Not so for Paul McGinley, however. Only 66th of the 78-strong field, he is now in the 10th and last automatic spot again with Jose Maria Olazabal having finished 22nd and expects a "dogfight" in Germany.

For very different reasons, though, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are among those who cannot climb into the top 10 and must now hope for a wild card from captain Ian Woosnam.

Westwood fell ill during the third round and withdrew from the event at the start of the final day.

The former European number one had to finish in the top six to retain any hope of qualifying automatically for next month's match, but his Saturday 74 had dropped him to 66th place.

Westwood complained of feeling sick and feverish when he came off. A doctor was called, but antibiotics failed to do the trick and after a bad night he announced he was pulling out and flying home. Fred Couples, who also withdrew, had been staying in an adjoining hotel room.

In his favour is that with Sergio Garcia he was Europe's top scorer in the record-breaking win in Detroit two years ago with four-and-a-half points out of five and that he is twice a winner at the K Club.

The 33-year-old looked to have little hope of a captain's pick when he had seven successive missed cuts earlier in the season, but last month he was fourth at the European Open and joint second at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Germany.

He also began the United States PGA Championship promisingly with a 69, but fell back to 29th and then offered contrary evidence of his form on the opening two days at Firestone Country Club, following a nine over par 79 with a three under 67.

Westwood and Darren Clarke, whose wife Heather lost her cancer battle two weeks ago, are thought to be the two favourites for the wild cards and that is bad news for Poulter.

Dressed in the red and white of Arsenal Poulter's hopes of not needing a captain's pick were still alive when he climbed to sixth place with three straight birdies at the start of the back nine.

But he then three-putted from four feet for a double bogey six at the 13th and bogeyed the next two. Not surprisingly after ending up 13th he was in no mood to talk afterwards.

Padraig Harrington is not yet totally safe at eighth in the cup standings, but it looks heavily odds-on he will make it.

Olazabal's fate is in the hands of others. He has decided not to play in Munich, saying he needs a rest.

The week will probably be best remembered for the bizarre ending to Woods' second round.

He hit his second shot to the par four ninth on to a cart path over the green and the ball bounced so high it went on to the roof of the three-storey clubhouse and was lost from view.

Woods had every reason for thinking it was out of bounds or lost or both and that he would be struggling to make a double bogey. Instead the ball came off the roof and was collected by a chef in a loading bay.

That was established within the five minutes allowed to search - by seconds probably - and after being given a free drop he got out of the hole with a bogey. "A huge break" he called it at the time

Having gone on to win it looks even bigger now.

Collated final round scores and totals in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, Firestone Country Club, Akron, Ohio, United States

(USA unless stated, par 70):

270 Tiger Woods 67 64 71 68 (£691,195), Stewart Cink 70 67 64 69 (£398,766) (Woods won at the 4th play-off hole)

271 Jim Furyk 69 65 69 68 (£239,259)

273 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 68 70 65, Davis Love 67 65 70 71, Lucas Glover 66 69 69 69, Paul Casey (Gbr) 69 69 64 71 (£130,928 each)

274 Luke Donald (Gbr) 67 69 70 68, David Toms 67 74 65 68 (£81,082 each)

275 Arron Oberholser 70 71 69 65, JJ Henry 70 68 68 69, Adam Scott (Aus) 63 71 71 70

277 Ian Poulter (Gbr) 71 71 67 68, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 69 70 68 70, Kevin Stadler 68 67 70 72

278 Ben Crane 73 67 70 68

279 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 67 71 70 71

280 Stephen Ames (Can) 73 67 70 68, Vaughn Taylor 71 67 71 71, Robert Gamez 70 67 72 71, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 72 67 67 74

281 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 68 70 74 69, KJ Choi (Kor) 75 70 67 69, Robert Allenby (Aus) 71 71 68 71, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 69 73 68 71, Mike Weir (Can) 69 71 69 72

282 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 73 71 70 68, Chris DiMarco 68 72 71 71, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 70 72 68 72, Kenny Perry 73 70 66 73

283 Brad Faxon 69 69 75 70, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 72 69 71 71, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 75 73 67 68, Justin Leonard 70 69 72 72, Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 67 70 78

284 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 75 71 68 70, Jason Gore 65 76 73 70, Zach Johnson 71 68 72 73, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 69 76 70 69, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 72 69 70 73, Brett Wetterich 72 73 71 68

285 Fred Funk 72 70 72 71, Tom Lehman 72 69 73 71, Ben Curtis 71 72 72 70

286 Dean Wilson 75 70 68 73, Rod Pampling (Aus) 75 71 71 69, Vijay Singh (Fij) 70 74 73 69

287 Corey Pavin 74 73 68 72, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 71 73 74 69

288 Olin Browne 68 75 70 75, JB Holmes 71 72 68 77, Stephen Dodd (Gbr) 74 73 69 72, Chad Campbell 68 76 72 72

289 Thomas Levet (Fra) 77 69 69 74, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 73 74 69 73, Phil Mickelson 74 74 68 73, Mark Hensby (Aus) 74 76 68 71, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 72 77 70

291 Scott Verplank 71 75 70 75, David Howell (Gbr) 67 79 71 74, Jeff Maggert 75 70 75 71

292 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 75 70 73 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 75 76 71 70, Bart Bryant 72 83 69 68

293 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 72 75 72 74

294 John Bickerton (Gbr) 74 75 70 75, Paul McGinley (Irl) 77 75 70 72

295 Chris Couch 72 74 72 77, Tim Herron 76 74 73 72, Mark Calcavecchia 75 72 77 71

296 Wes Short 76 71 73 76, Peter Lonard (Aus) 74 73 77 72, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 76 75 76 69

300 Tim Clark (Rsa) 68 75 80 77

301 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 74 76 81 70

304 Tatsuhiko Takahashi (Jpn) 81 73 75 75

Withdrew Lee Westwood (Gbr), Fred Couples