ATLANTA — He was the first player to win three consecutive U.S. Amateurs. The first of African-American descent to win The Masters. The first professional to win four consecutive majors.

And now Tiger Woods is the first to win the FedExCup.

The world's No. 1 kept a safe distance between himself and the rest of the field early in Sunday's final round and then waltzed to an eight-shot win in The Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. In doing so, he wrapped up the FedExCup, the PGA Tour's inaugural postseason showdown, and the $10 million grand prize.

In another first, Woods became the only player to win The Tour Championship twice. In winning his 61st Tour title of his career, his seventh this season and the fourth in his last five tournaments, Woods shot 64-63-64-66 to finish at 23-under-par 257, the third-lowest aggregate score for 72 holes in Tour history.

The score was the lowest of his career and broke the Tour Championship record by six shots.

In addition to the $10 million he won — which comes in deferred compensation and will be placed in his retirement portfolio — Woods took home first-place money of $1.26 million to push his season total past $10.8 million.

"For me I don't look at what the purse is or prize money," Woods said. "You play, and when you play, you play to win, period."

Masters champion Zach Johnson (68) and Mark Calcavecchia (71) tied for second.

Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson were the only other players with a realistic chance of capturing the FedExCup, and their hopes were gone by the weekend. Stricker closed with a 67 and tied for 17th to finish second in the FedExCup, worth $3 million in retirement money.

Woods, however, made no secret of which trophy meant more.

"I think winning this week is pretty special," he said. "Winning the FedExCup is one thing, but I think as a player, you always want to win the Tour Championship. There's history involved, and the players who have won it ... these are basically the 30 hottest players for this year, and you know you're going to have your hands full coming into this week."

Woods won for the 61st time in his career, at 31 making him the youngest player to reach that mark. That leaves him one victory shy of Arnold Palmer's 62 career victories.

Woods has never lost any tournament as a pro when leading by more than one shot going into the final round.