Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker finish one-two at Doral

Tiger Woods might want to consider giving his putting coach, Steve Stricker, a cut of his $1.5 million WGC-Cadillac Championship winnings.

Woods, who cruised to his 76th PGA Tour win on Sunday on the strength of a week-long birdie barrage and new-found confidence with his flat stick, thanked Stricker once again for helping him navigate the firm, fast greens at Doral. Indeed, the prohibitive favorite to win the Masters in a month after notching his second win in four tour events this year conceded he may not have grabbed the two-shot victory over his Ryder Cup partner had it not been for the 45-minute session the two had on Thursday.

“I would like to say I probably would have [figured it out on my own] but -- there’s a but there,” Woods told reporters after finishing with a final-round 1-under 71 that brought him to 19-under for the week. “I’ve been putting at home and it hasn’t felt right. I still was a little bit off.”

Woods took a four-shot lead over playing partner Graeme McDowell into the finale and held off GMac and Stricker in a wire-to-wire win that featured the best putting of his professional career. He drained 27 birdies, one fewer than his all-time high, and needed just 100 putts in four days.

The second-winningest player in tour history (he’s striding quickly toward Sam Snead’s all-time record of 82 Ws) set the tone early when he jammed in a 25-foot birdie putt on the second hole. Even before that, it was clear that the rest of the field was playing for second.

“The last time I really thought I had a chance to catch [Tiger] was probably yesterday,” admitted McDowell, who finished in a tie for third and earlier took issue with Ian Poulter for running up the white flag on Saturday night.

Woods, for his part, was effusive in his praise of the semi-retired Stricker, long regarded as the best putter in golf and who may well have a second career as the next Dave Stockton when he quits the tour for real.

“I played well this week and thank you to Steve for the putting lesson,” Woods said. “It was one of those weeks where I felt pretty good about how I was playing and I made some putts and pretty much got it rolling.”

Yeah, he did, and Stricker, for one, had no regrets about helping out his friend.

Well, maybe just a pang of remorse.

“At times you kind of kick yourself,” Stricker, who pocketed the runner’s-up check, said with a smile just before Woods made it official.

But there’s a reason the Wisconsin native has earned the reputation as one of the nicest guys on tour.

“No, really, he’s a good friend and we talk a lot about putting. It’s good to see him playing well even though it looks like he’s going to clip me by a few shots this week,” said Stricker, returning to what was clearly the theme of the week. “It’s the nature of the game; everybody helps one another out here. Older players did it with me. You’re friends out here even though you’re competing with one another. You still like to hep each other out.”

Don’t feel too sorry for Stricker, by the way. His second-place $869,852 check (according to GolfChannel.com’s Ryan Lavner) for closing with a 68 does not officially classify as chicken feed -- though he will, no doubt, be giving his caddie, his wife Nicki, a healthy tip for lugging his bag all week.