The round was his lowest ever at the Riviera and his lowest of the 2004 campaign but the world number one was never in serious contention to capture the title won by defending champion Mike Weir of Canada.

While he finally found his game following a month-long layoff after the season-opening Mercedes Championships, what remains unclear is whether Woods can sustain the improvement over four rounds.

"Yes, isn't that amazing," Woods responded wryly when asked about playing well with the pressure off.

"Today, I hit the ball closer to the cup and made a few putts. More importantly, I hit my irons better."

Woods had a similar muddling performance at the Buick Invitational last week and finished tied for 10th, his worst showing at the event in seven career starts.

At the start of Sunday's final round, Woods was again in danger of having his worst career finish at a particular event.

"I set myself a goal of either getting into the top 10 or, failing that, build some positive momentum going into next week considering we might not be able to play many practice rounds," Woods said.

Woods now travels down the west coast for the World Golf Championship-Accenture Match Play Championship, an event, like last week's Buick Invitational, where he enters as the defending champion.

"Match play is a totally different element," Woods said.

"Your approach play can be poor but if you make putts and put pressure on your opponent, you can wear him down that way.

"Or you could go out there and simply play perfectly good solid golf and put a lot of pressure on your opponent that way.

"That's the method I prefer to adopt of the two."