Great players have the capacity to make great things happen. But the really great ones seem to be able to do it when it matters most - as with Tiger Woods in the final round of the Deutsche Bank TPC Open in glorious sunshine here at St Leon-Rot yesterday.

He and Michael Campbell were tied on 19 under par as they stood on the 13th fairway. Where the New Zealander hit a solid approach onto the green for a twoputt par, Woods was already in the hole for an eagle two, having hit the back of the cup with a spectacular, seven-iron shot of 175 yards.

The success of the shot became all the more interesting for the fact he had originally planned to hit a six iron and then changed his mind. "At first, the wind was coming at me from the right but suddenly dropped, so I switched to a seven," he said afterwards. "When the ball disappeared and the crowd went nuts, I guessed it was in the hole."

From then on, any lingering doubts, even from committed sceptics, were emphatically removed. It became simply a matter of the extent of the winning margin.

Eduardo Romero, who led Woods and Campbell by one stroke overnight, saw his challenge begin to crumble as early as the opening hole, where he had a bogey six against an eagle from Woods. "My left foot was a bit sore which made me come off my shots," he said after tumbling to a closing 77. "That was unfortunate." Padraig Harrington became the leading Irishman when a final round of 70 for a 15-under-par aggregate of 273, gave him a share of fifth place. But his reward might have been significantly greater had a 10-foot birdie putt on the final green, not slipped past the hole on the low side.

As it was, Harrington had placed himself in position for a high finish with a third-round 64 in probably the hottest three-ball scoring in the history of the European Tour. With his playing partners, Henrik Stenson and Peter O'Malley, each carding 63s, the trio bagged a total of 27 birdies in a combined score of 26 under par. It meant that from a position of tied 23rd at the halfway stage, he moved to sixth place on his own.

"I haven't been putting well of late, but things can't be all that bad when I finish fifth," he said after a round which contained birdies at each of the par fives.

As Woods illustrated, long hitters had a significant advantage here and Harrington's power delivered two, two-putt birdies and pitch and putt birdies at the remaining long holes.

But unfortunately for him, there was also an extremely costly double bogey at the relatively innocent, 345-yard second. Misjudging the wind for a simple, wedge approach, he hit it too strongly with the result it bounced into a water hazard at the back right of the green.

Paul McGinley had a closing 69 for a share of 10th place and prize money of £29,901. And it was hardly surprising he harboured bitter regrets about a missed opportunity on the Saturday when a decidedly moderate 72 allowed a sizeable group of players to sweep past him.

Still, he produced a tidy final round which contained four birdies and a lone bogey, at the 464yard 12th, where he drove into rough. The crispness of his iron play was comparable to that of a second-round 65 but the only putt of consequence he holed was a 40footer for a birdie on the short 17th.

"The amount of ground I lost on Saturday shows just how high the standard now is on tour," he said. "It was quite unbelievable." He added: "Obviously, I'm looking towards this week's Volvo PGA at Wentworth, but I have also got to decide about taking a break during the coming weeks."

Darren Clarke set the place alight on Saturday morning when he was among the large group still to complete the second round. As it happened, he covered his remaining seven holes in par, birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, par for an inward 29. So, from a position of five over par, he moved to one under to make the cut on the limit.

As one would expect from a player of his quality, he built on that turnabout to shoot closing rounds of 69 and 67 for an improbable share of 24th place and a cheque for £17,098.

"I figured out on Saturday morning what I was doing wrong - I wasn't completing my shoulder turn," he said.

So, there were no more shots blocked into serious trouble on the right. In fact, his final round included five birdies and an eagle. This rather special bird came at the 544-yard 11th which he reduced to a drive, a five-wood second shot of 233 yards and a 12foot putt.

A 20-footer found the target for a birdie on the third, otherwise he was hitting his approach irons sufficiently close so as to have a longest putt of eight feet for his other birdies. "With my game in this shape, I'm really looking forward to Wentworth," he added.

After a recent lay-off through illness, Des Smyth wasn't expecting very much from his game over the weekend. But he was pleasantly surprised to extract a closing 74 from a round that contained an outward journey of 40, even if the reward was a modest £4,323, the same as colleague Eamonn Darcy.