Final Tour Championship leaderboard

Final 2018 Tour Championship leaderboard:

So what happened?

It had been 1,876 days since Tiger Woods last won a PGA Tour event.

But the man who once wondered whether he’d ever lift a club in anger again has produced what many thought was impossible – claiming yet another trophy.

The Tour Championship, at East Lake in Atlanta, is Tiger’s 80th victory and will surely go down as one of his most memorable.

The scenes at the final hole certainly will, with thousands of spectators following Woods down the fairway and surrounding the green as he moved on his victory march.

It could only happen for Tiger.

And it followed a largely vintage final round performance – one that wouldn’t have looked out of place in his prime.

He suffocated the field – finding fairways and greens and playing with supreme authority – as his much-vaunted rivals all but cowered in his presence.

Rory McIlroy now knows exactly how Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els felt for about a decade and a half.

The Northern Irishman, three shots behind at the start of play, looked shell shocked once his attack at all costs approach sank like a torpedoed battleship.

Three bogeys and a double in the middle of the front nine finished his hopes – with the four-time major winner finding it impossible to hit a fairway.

Justin Rose failed to get a flier too and, as he couldn’t exert the required pressure, the real possibility of blowing the FedEx Cup – and the $10 million bonus – started to dominate his attention.

It was largely serene for Woods until a heart stopping moment when his ball narrowly cleared the water at the par 3 15th.

He handed back a shot there, along with another at the next, as the enormity of trying to end a five-year gap without a victory naturally produced a few nerves.

But as the huge crowd chanted his name, he closed out with a par for a two shot victory over Billy Horschel and lifted his arms aloft in triumph.

Golf next year had better watch out. Tiger is on the trophy prowl once more and it will be majors on his mind in 2019.

Click here for Steve Carroll’s full round-up from the Tour Championship, including who won the FedEx Cup and who has ended the PGA Tour season as World No. 1.