AUGUSTA, Georgia - A tearful Tiger Woods dedicated one of his most hard-fought victories to his ailing father here Sunday, an emotional end to a Masters that vindicated Woods' recent struggles with swing changes.
Woods sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the first sudden death playoff hole to beat Chris DiMarco for a fourth Masters title, reclaiming the world number one ranking to move halfway to matching Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles.
"I haven't thought aboout it," Woods said. "I guess I am halfway - a long way to go."
Foremost on the 29-year-old American's mind was his father, Earl Woods, whoose poor health prevented him from coming to Augusta National Golf Club to watch his son end a 10-event major drought.
"This is for dad," Woods told the crowd at the victory ceremony. "My dad hasn't been doing very well this year. He has had a very difficult year.
"I can't wait to get ahold of him to give him a big bear hug."
Woods did his best to share his moment of glory with the man whose persistence and toughening of Woods as a child turned him into the greatest golfer of his era, and possibly of all time.
"He's struggling. His health has been pretty bad all year," Woods said. "He is hanging in there and so that's why it meant so much for me to be able to win this tournament with him struggling, maybe give him a little hope, a little more fire to keep fighting.
"He's as stubborn as can be, so he's going to fight through it. He has had his moments where he has turned it around and other times where it hasn't been so good. This week was one of those moments where it wasn't so good."
Woods went 18 months without a stroke-play victory on the US PGA Tour while making adjustments to his swing with coach Hank Haney.
"More than anything it's validation of all the hard work I've put into it," Woods said. "I'm getting ripped for all the changes I'm making and to play as beautifully as I did this entire week is pretty cool."
Woods took great criticism for the changes but said they were necessary if he was to become better than anyone, including superior to the form he showed to dominate golf in 2000 and 2001, capturing four majors in a row.
"I don't want to get back to 2000. I want to become better than that. That's the whole idea of making a change," Woods said before the tournament.
"I won the Masters by 12 in '97. I changed my game. Do I want to go back to that? No, I don't. I want to become better than that. I was able to achieve that and that's why I made this change. I'm starting to see the fruits of it."
Woods won his first pro title with an over-par opening round and matched Arnold Palmer for second on the all-time Masters win list, two shy of Nicklaus' all-time mark. Woods became the youngest player to win four Masters.
Nickalus once said he could see Woods winning as many Masters titles as himself and Palmer combined. Six more green jackets would be a major chunk of what Woods would need to break Nicklaus' career major mark.
"It would be pretty cool if I got six more. That's a lot, isn't it?" Woods said. "It is pretty neat to have won four before age 30. No one has done that so to be able to do something that no one has ever done is pretty neat."
Woods left no doubt in the minds of rivals that he is back on form.
"I've battled the last couple of years and made some changes," Woods said. "For the most part I wasn't in contention on the back nine in every major like I like to be. It's nice to get back there again."
Had Woods not won this time, the major drought would have been the longest of his career.
"Ten majors is not that long. Some guys go without for life," Woods said. "I've had my major championships. I know what it takes. I put myself there a couple times and didn't get the job done. This time, I got the job done."

04/11/2005 02:00 GMT