At last Victory: Tiger Woods is back on the trail.

After 749 days and 26 tournaments, Tiger Woods won his first golf tournament narrowly defeating fellow American Zach Johnson to capture the Chevron World Challenge title Sunday, December 4. It is not an official PGA Tour event but an off season golf tournament hosted by Tiger Woods which is limited to 18 players and takes place each December at Sherwood Country Club, a course designed by Jack Nicklaus, in Thousand Oaks, California. He has been trying for a long time to repair his image, his personal life and a golf game that used to be the best in the world.

Tiger Woods stood over a 6-foot birdie putt Sunday to win the Chevron World Challenge and felt as though nothing had changed. When the final birdie putt from 6 feet disappeared into the cup, Woods swept his arm across the air, yelled through the din of the gallery and slammed his fist in a celebration that was a long time coming.

He birdied the last two holes for a 3-under 69 and won against an 18-man field at Sherwood Country Club. It was a two-man race against former Masters champion Zach Johnson over the final hour. Even so, winning is all that ever mattered to Woods _ now perhaps more than ever before.

"It feels awesome," said Woods on his official website, tigerwoods.com. "It was a lot of fun coming down the stretch." "If I don't make that putt it's in Zach's control," Woods added. "That putt was huge."

It was his 83rd win worldwide in tournaments that award ranking points, but his first since he won the Australian Masters on Nov. 15, 2009, back when he looked as though he would rule golf for as long as he played.

Woods with Chevron World Challenge trophy