LEMONT (ILLINOIS) - TIGER Woods does not swat home runs. Instead, he just piles up PGA Tour titles.

The number is 60 career titles now that he has won the BMW Championship.

He was trailing overnight leaders Aaron Baddeley and Steve Stricker by a stroke.

By the time the final round was finished on Sunday, Woods was holding the trophy and had left the pack in his wake by a two-shot margin.

Just 31, he reached 60 wins five years quicker than anyone else and arrived there in typical style - smashing records along the way.

The American's final-round 63 equalled the lowest 18-hole score in the history of the 104-year-old championship.

And his winning total of 22-under 262 was five shots better than any previous score.

It was his sixth win of the season and fourth at the Cog Hill Golf and Country Club, where he made his first PGA Tour cut more than a decade ago, pushing his career earnings past US$75 million (S$114 million) - another record.

And he joined Sam Snead (82), Jack Nicklaus (73), Ben Hogan (64) and Arnold Palmer (62) among those with 60 or more victories in PGA Tour events.

Even Woods, never one to be overly impressed with himself, acknowledged it is pretty special.

He said: 'I never, ever would have dreamt that this could have happened this soon.

'I've been out here, what, 11 years? This is my 12th season. And to have this many wins...I never could have foreseen that.

'I've exceeded my expectations, and it's been a lot of fun to enjoy that whole road, that whole process, to get to 60.

'It's been a lot of work. There have been some changes along the way, you know? But I think that's all been great.''

Australian Baddeley fired a 66 and finished second on 264.

Stricker was two shots further back after a closing 68.

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

The victory restored Woods to the top of the play-off standings with one week remaining in the FedEx Cup.

But all that mattered to him was making putts.

It was his best round on the greens all week at Cog Hill, none bigger than a 50-foot birdie that stretched from one end of the green to the other on the par-three 12th that got him back on track.

'With conditions this soft, the guys are just going to tear this place apart,' Woods said.

'I think the three of us just got wrapped up in it. We were all making birdies, and we kept pushing each other. I just made a few more on that back nine.'

He 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.

Woods fell one behind when Baddeley birdied the par-five 11th, then the world No 1 asserted himself.

He sank that 50-foot monster at the par-three 12th, and also birdied the 13th, 15th and 16th.

'Obviously, I saw him make the birdie there,' Stricker said of Woods' bomb at No 12.

'It looked like he looked back to make sure we were watching him.'

Woods denied he had his eye on the competition, but said he knew he had to keep the pressure on them.

The tournament is the third of four in the inaugural PGA Tour play-off series, called the FedEx Cup. It concludes this week with the Tour Championship.

The big loser was Phil Mickelson, who took the week off, dropping from first to third on the points list, behind Woods and Stricker. That sets the scene for a great battle for the US$10 million (S$15.3 million) bonus.

Despite skipping the first tournament in the play-offs, Woods had a 3,133-point lead over Stricker, who finished third at the BMW Championship, and a 4,120-point lead over Mickelson.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS