Tiger Woods showed no mercy on his way to a crushing victory over Stewart Cink in the final of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship at the Gallery Club yesterday.

The world No 1, who had been four holes up at the halfway stage, made short work of his Ryder Cup team-mate, closing out the match at the 29th hole to win 8 and 7 and set a record for winning margins in the final. The previous best had been David Toms’s 6 and 5 victory against Chris Di Marco in 2005.

Woods has opened so vast a gap between himself and the rest that almost nobody dares dream of filling it. For his part, Cink said that he was pleased just to be sharing the stage with Woods — and it showed.

Before he knew it, Cink was part of a living nightmare rather than a dream final. It took only two holes before Woods was into his stride — courtesy of a 22-foot putt for a hole-winning birdie — and by the time he was walking off the 11th, the world No 1 was five up and cruising.

Cink had little answer to the barrage of birdies that Woods was throwing at him — six in the first 11 holes and 14 overall — and, in the end, it was just a matter of time before Woods claimed his victory.

This was his fifteenth World Golf Championships title in 26 starts, a figure that is more surprising when you consider that only Darren Clarke has won more than one of them — this tournament, where he recorded a famous 4 and 3 victory over Woods in 2000, and the NEC Invitational, in 2003.

The WGC events have become Woods’s to lose and, with this victory, he holds all three at the same time, including the CA Championship and the Bridgestone Invitational. At present, though, these are small beer, despite the $1.35 million (about £650,000) first prize for a player with one key thought for 2008 — the grand slam of all four major championships.

There has been debate as to who is the greatest player ever. Many, quite rightly, have argued the case for Jack Nicklaus, who won 18 professional major championships, was runner-up 19 times, and had an aura almost the equal of Woods, who trails him by five.

But in the past 18 months, Woods has taken the game to another level. Barring catastrophe, he should pass Nicklaus’s record in the majors in the next few years. Nicklaus was 46 when he won his last one, the Masters, in 1986. Woods is 32.

Perhaps the most telling statistics are those related to strike rate on the US tour. Ben Hogan is Woods’s nearest challenger, with 64 wins in 245 starts, a winning average of 26 per cent. Nicklaus won 73 out of 450 events (16 per cent), while Woods has won 63 times in 217 events, for a barely believable average of 29 per cent. He has won eight of his past nine events and six on the trot.

Woods also moves above Arnold Palmer in PGA Tour wins. By coincidence, his next tournament will be the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida in three weeks and he is ready to rub it in. “I can’t wait to get there to give him a ribbing,” Woods said, with a broad smile. Palmer, no doubt, will be waiting with the champagne on ice.

Henrik Stenson, the Swede, took third place with a 3 and 2 victory over Justin Leonard.