TIGER Woods won the AT&T National, making a 20-foot birdie on the 16th and closing with a three-under 67 to hold off Hunter Mahan for a one-shot victory at Congressional.

Woods made it a hat-trick of victories in tournaments hosted by PGA Tour stars, this one the most meaningful of all because it was his own.

It was his third victory of the year, the others coming at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament.

'Whether it's my tournament, Jack's, Arnold's...it really doesn't matter. You go out there with the same intensity to win,' Woods said.

Mahan made six birdies on the back nine for a 62 on Sunday, tying the course record that Anthony Kim set on Thursday.

The final birdie on the 18th gave Mahan a share of the lead, and he had to wait more than an hour to see if Woods could top him.

Woods twice scrambled for par to stay tied for the lead, then looked as though he squandered a good birdie chance on the par-five 16th when his chip from the rough came out heavy and stopped 20 feet from the hole.

Backing off once, he rolled in it, then walked stoically to the hole, nodding his head. He closed with routine pars to finish at 13-under 267.

68th win

The 68th victory of his PGA Tour career moved him to the top of the money list and the FedEx Cup standings for the first time this year.

Kim, the first-round leader and in joint-top spot after the third round, simply couldn't keep up.

It was the ideal final pairing at Congressional - the world's No. 1 player and tournament host tied with Kim, a confident 24-year-old who was the defending champion.

Kim lost four shots in four holes on the front nine, and didn't make a birdie on the back nine. He shot a 71 to finish in third, four shots behind.

Most of the 40,000 fans at Congressional scrambled for a sight of the present and the future - Woods and Kim - until Mahan started dropping in putts from everyone on the back nine.

'I think everybody was watching AK and Tiger and expecting kind of a battle there, and I knew I just had to go low today,' Mahan said.

He was in the family dining area when he finished, watching with Woods' wife, Elin, and their two-year-old daughter, Sam.

Woods missed a 10-foot putt on the 14th and Mahan said he jokingly cheered in a light moment.

But he knew better. Mahan said: 'He knows what he's doing. He knows how to play this game better than anybody.'

AP