Hard work swings the Tiger back to the top

Yet Woods, who finally beat DiMarco in a play-off having held a four-shot lead with 17 holes to play, insisted it was his swing that swung it for him.

"I hit so many beautiful golf shots," he said. "Vindication? More than anything it's validation of all the hard work I've put in.

"Hank and I have put some serious hours into this yet I read the articles with him us getting ripped for all the changes we made. To play as beautifully as I did all week was pretty cool."

Woods claimed this win was comparable to his one-shot victory over Sergio Garcia in the US PGA at Medinah in 1999, the one that established him as the man to beat. He said: "It is nice to be back with a chance to win coming down the back nine on a Sunday."

Seven successive birdies taking in the tail-end of the rain-delayed third round and the start of the fourth round suggested that Woods was not so much "cool" as burning hot.

But DiMarco, as stubborn as they come, refused to have his own fire extinguished and when he birdied the 11th at the start of Augusta's infamous Amen Corner the deficit had been reduced to just one shot.

The Masters has a habit of asking contenders to earn the title by producing something special.

There was Gene Sarazen's fourwood eagle, the fabled "shot heard around the world" that set up the American's victory in 1935; the chip-in by Larry Mize that did for Greg Norman in 1987; and Sandy Lyle's seven iron out of the bunker on the 18th a year later.

To that list may now be now added Woods' delicate wedge from 30ft at the par three 16th. Misjudgment of the slope would almost certainly have been punished by a bogey and with DiMarco in birdie range the championship could have been lost there and then.

Woods, as nerveless as they come, plopped the ball well left of the flagstick and it rolled down slowly until it appeared to stop right on the lip. Yet there was still the minutest of momentum there, and the ball dropped to inspire a high-five between Woods and his caddie Steve Williams.

"Yes, that was one of my greatest shots, given the situation," confirmed the golfer.

DiMarco nearly chipped in himself at the last hole of regulation play, which finished with both men on 12 under par totals of 276, but his rival finally summoned a peach of a three-wood from off the 18th tee at the first play-off hole to setup a championship-winning birdie.

At 29 Woods becomes the youngest player to win four Masters, beating Jack Nicklaus to the mark by nearly three years. And he now joins Ben Hogan and Gary Player on nine majors, half Nicklaus's record total.

Woods also retakes the world number one ranking from Fiji's Vijay Singh and banked a first prize of £700,000 to take his career winnings to £27.25 million.

Not bad for a so-called no-hoper.