Woods is the fastest to $1m

Tiger Woods won the Mercedes Championships, the opening tournament of the USPGA's season, by beating Tom Lehman at the first extra hole yesterday after rain washed out the fourth round in Carlsbad, California. The first prize took Woods' earnings above $1m from only nine events, making him easily the quickest golfer into seven-figure earnings.

The weather reduced the anticipated showdown between the 1996 Rookie of the Year and the 1996 Player of the Year to sudden death, and, as the rain fell, that, in effect, meant one shot.

At the only playable hole, the short seventh, Lehman put his six-iron into the water. Woods, the new boy who shot 65 to Lehman's 69 on Saturday to draw level on 14-under-par 202, really only had to hit the green to win, but he put his 186-yard shot eight inches from the flag.