AKRON, Ohio -- The irony was not lost on Stewart Cink.

When Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996, Cink told people that he'd have a hard time getting his PGA TOUR card without going through q-school. That wasn't a knock on Woods, just a reality check -- at least, that's what Cink thought at the time.

"I think he ended up winning or one or two and ended up getting in THE TOUR Championship," Cink recalled Sunday, smiling wryly. "I stopped making predictions about Tiger at that point."

On Sunday at Firestone Country Club -- 10 years to the day that Woods turned pro -- the game's undisputed No. 1 player beat Cink in a four-hole playoff to win the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.

The victory completed a successful title defense for Woods, who has now won four straight tournaments and a total of six in 2006. The 30-year-old practically owns Firestone Country Club, too, winning five of the last eight events played there.

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"I can't say enough good things about Tiger Woods," Cink said. "I've been playing against him since I was about 17, and I just relish the opportunity to go against him in another playoff sometime.

"I think it's the real pinnacle of where our sport is right now, and I was up there for a little while."

Up there is pretty rarefied air, too. Woods is now tied with Byron Nelson with 52 TOUR wins -- just 30 shy of Sam Snead's all-time mark. He's won more than a quarter of his 198 starts, 26.26 percent to be exact, and earned over $63 million.

This one didn't come easy, though. Not like Woods' second win at Firestone when he shot a record 21-under par. Sunday was hard-fought, more like that third title in 2001 when he outlasted Jim Furyk in a seven-hole playoff that ended in darkness.

"It's always nice to walk away with a W, however you do it," said Woods, who has now won 11 of the 21 World Golf Championships contested. "The playoff with Jim, that was a battle of wins, and I got hot one year, 21 deep, I think it was.

"Today was just trying to get it around somehow, and hopefully, it would be good enough where I could just hang around, and it worked out."

For a while Sunday, Woods appeared ready to distance himself from the field. He counteracted an indifferent driver with a hot putter, building a three-stroke lead with a trio of birdies in a four-hole stretch as he made the turn.

"I was thinking if I could par in, I'd win the tournament,' Woods said. "But that didn't happen."