Tiger Woods admitted there had been no margin for error after taking command to earn a two-stroke victory at the BMW Championship in Illinois.

Woods, who began the final round one stroke behind, carded eight birdies in a seemingly effortless eight-under-par 63 in ideal scoring conditions at Cog Hill, still soft after recent rains.

He broke clear with four birdies in five holes on the back nine to match the course record and finish at 22-under for his sixth victory of the year, and the 60th of his career on the US PGA Tour, just two less than the great Arnold Palmer.

Woods also went to the top of the points table in the new FedExCup play-off series, which concludes with next week's Tour Championship, where the winner will earn a £4.9million bonus.

Australian Aaron Baddeley, who led Woods by one stroke with seven holes remaining, shot 66 for second place on 20-under 264, with American Steve Stricker (68) two shots further back in third.

"Starting the day I thought 20-under was going to be the number, but that had to be altered," said Woods. "Guys were making birdies everywhere.

"I just had to keep making birdies and being aggressive. You really couldn't play too conservatively coming in."

Baddeley was hardly heartbroken to finish second: "I didn't hand it to him. He had to shoot eight-under to win," he said of Woods.

"Steve and I both made him do that, because we were both playing well, and he just made a couple of extra birdies at the finish to get by us."

Stricker, who also was ahead of Woods with seven holes left, seemed to lose his swing down the stretch, hitting several poor shots.

Justin Rose, who played the final round with Woods, had a decent day, carding 68, but he was never in the hunt after starting five shots back, finishing equal fifth.

However, Rose is the only British player to advance to the 30-man Tour Championship, with Luke Donald and Ian Poulter eliminated, Donald by the smallest of margins.

He finished 31st on the points list, one spot behind Irishman Padraig Harrington, who held on to qualify for a trip to Atlanta, despite taking this week off.

Donald, who started the BMW in 28th place, gave himself a chance with a closing 65, but it turned out to be too little, too late.

Woods, meanwhile, picked up four birdies on the front nine, but could not break clear of Stricker and Baddeley, all three making the turn locked at 18-under.

It seemed for a long time that nobody on the leaderboard could miss from inside 15 feet, as all three leaders reeled off a hat-trick of birdies at the seventh, eighth and ninth holes.

Woods fell one behind when Baddeley birdied the par-five 11th, but then seized control in emphatic fashion.

He sank a 50-foot monster at the par-three 12th, and also birdied the par-four 13th, the par-five 15th and par-four 16th, before parring the final two holes.

The big loser was Phil Mickelson, who took the week off, dropping from first to third on the points list, behind Woods and Stricker, setting the scene for a great battle for the bonus.

Collated final-round scores & totals (USA unless stated, par 71):

262 Tiger Woods 67 67 65 63

264 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 68 65 65 66

266 Steve Stricker 68 66 64 68

270 Adam Scott (Aus) 69 69 67 65

271 Justin Rose (Eng) 65 69 69 68, Tim Clark (Rsa) 68 69 67 67

272 Camilo Villegas (Col) 65 69 71 67, Stewart Cink 66 73 68 65

274 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 68 70 69 67

275 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 69 72 68 66, Ian Poulter (Eng) 68 72 69 66, Jonathan Byrd 64 69 71 71, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 71 68 69 67

276 Nathan Green (Aus) 67 71 67 71, Jim Furyk 70 69 67 70, Lucas Glover 70 71 67 68, Brandt Snedeker 70 71 65 70

277 Pat Perez 66 69 70 72, Ernie Els (Rsa) 73 67 68 69, Bo Van Pelt 69 71 68 69, David Toms 72 70 68 67, Bubba Watson 71 69 69 68, Ryan Moore 69 70 68 70, Charles Howell III 68 73 67 69

278 Charley Hoffman 68 70 72 68, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 67 70 71 70, Kevin Sutherland 70 73 69 66, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 68 68 71 71, Mark Wilson 76 69 68 65

279 Vaughn Taylor 73 68 69 69, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 72 69 71 67, John Mallinger 74 68 69 68, Hunter Mahan 69 68 71 71, Luke Donald (Eng) 76 70 68 65, Brett Wetterich 68 72 71 68, Scott Verplank 69 70 70 70, Rocco Mediate 70 70 68 71

280 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 73 72 66 69, Zach Johnson 72 71 70 67, Billy Mayfair 72 69 67 72, Woody Austin 67 73 71 69, Robert Allenby (Aus) 75 68 69 68, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 70 70 69 71, KJ Choi (Kor) 68 70 71 71, Stephen Ames (Can) 71 68 69 72

281 Heath Slocum 71 68 72 70

282 Kenny Perry 71 71 66 74, Troy Matteson 66 77 68 71

283 Jerry Kelly 74 72 68 69, Steve Marino 73 70 69 71, Brian Bateman 70 72 72 69

284 Anthony Kim 74 70 70 70, John Senden (Aus) 71 75 71 67, Ken Duke 67 73 71 73, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 75 71 68 70

285 John Rollins 69 71 74 71

286 Sean O'Hair 74 72 71 69, Boo Weekley 75 72 72 67

287 Nick Watney 72 73 72 70, Jose Coceres (Arg) 70 69 70 78

288 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 78 73 68 69, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 70 73 74 71

289 Jeff Quinney 72 73 70 74

290 Vijay Singh (Fij) 74 69 77 70

297 Mark Calcavecchia 77 71 75 74