Woods caps amazing finish

Tiger Woods is throwing hats now. Everyone else is tipping theirs.

The black Nike cap hit the ground as Woods did a Johan Santana impersonation, flexed like the champion he is and roared toward the crowd that ate it up.

The endings keep getting better as Woods keeps winning.

Woods captured the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a 24-foot putt during a week when he had missed 21 straight putts of 20 feet or more.

But this was the 18th green on Sunday. That's when 24-foot putts obey Woods.

As a result, all Bart Bryant could do was laugh from the Bay Hill scorer's trailer as Woods topped his nine-under total of 271 by one stroke.

The moment even made Woods blank out.

"When Stevie [Williams] handed me my hat, I was like, 'How in the hell did he get my hat?' " Woods said of his caddie. "Evidently it came off."

The intensity grows as Woods has won seven of his last eight PGA Tour events, including five in a row heading into next week's CA Championship at Doral in Miami.

Woods shot a final-round 66 after entering the day tied for first with Bryant, Vijay Singh, Bubba Watson and Sean O'Hair.

Arnold Palmer told Woods he was proud of him after the putt that now holds major history. The win gave Woods 64 for his tour career, tying Ben Hogan.

Next up: Jack Nicklaus at 73 wins. And the way Woods is writing this script, he could reach Nicklaus by the fall.

"It's knowing that you have an opportunity to end the tournament and it's in your hands, not anyone else's," Woods said after finishing at 10-under 270. "It's like having the ball with a few seconds to go, do you want it or not want it? I would much rather have it in my hands than anyone else's."

In his last nine tournaments counting one on the European Tour, Woods has eight wins and one second-place finish. The only guy to defeat Woods since September, Phil Mickelson at the Deutsche Bank Championship, is the same guy who lost to Woods on a similar 18th-hole putt at Bay Hill in 2001. That was Woods' second of four consecutive Bay Hill titles -- but he struggled to crack the top 20 since 2003.

With worm-infested greens Woods disliked, some expected this to be the week he fizzled. At least that pattern seemed inevitable early on when he was seven strokes off Singh's lead.