ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Tiger Woods split the middle of the fairway with a 3-wood, then ducked outside the ropes and dropped to his knees, his stomach heaving from a nasty bout of food poisoning.

He never had it so difficult, nor has he ever made winning look so easy.

Sickened by some bad pasta that caused him to vomit through the night and a rainy Sunday, Woods still managed to win the Bay Hill Invitational for the fourth straight year by going the final 44 holes without a bogey and winning by 11 strokes.

It will only look routine in the record books.

“If I wasn’t in contention, I wouldn’t have gone. There’s no way,” Woods said. “It was a joke. Every single tee shot hurt because my abs were obviously sore from last night, and I continued on while I was playing.

“The night was long, and the day was probably even longer,” he said. “That being said, I’m very happy with the way I played.”

Woods closed with a 4-under 68 to become the first player in 73 years to win the same tournament four straight times.

It also was the fourth time in his career he has won by double digits, another dominant performance despite the piteous scenes of him running to the bushes and behind courtesy vans as he tried to find a private place to be sick in front of 10,000 fans.

Woods came down with food poisoning Saturday night after a pasta dinner prepared by his girlfriend, Elin Nordegren. Only a day earlier, she collapsed outside the clubhouse from food poisoning and dehydration.

Nordegren spent the night in the hospital. Woods didn’t think he had that option.

Woods was helped by a cool, steady rain that drenched Bay Hill, not to mention a five-stroke lead going into the final round.

Pak uses eagles, big par

to defeat Sorenstam

PHOENIX – Se Ri Pak needed a big start to beat Annika Sorenstam, and she got it with a pair of front nine eagles. On a course where birdies came in bunches, though, it took a scrambling par to clinch her win.

Pak’s long par putt after hitting it in the water on the 17th hole kept her in the lead, and she finished with a tap-in birdie on the final hole for an 8-under 64 to win the Safeway Ping by a shot over Grace Park.

Sorenstam, meanwhile, struggled with her wedges and putter all day and was never in contention on the back nine. She finished with a 1-under 71, four shots back.

The final round began with Pak making birdies on the first two holes, setting up a showdown between the two best players on the LPGA tour. But after Pak took the lead with two eagles on the front nine, Sorenstam never threatened.

Park actually had an outside chance to tie if she could sink her second shot on the par-4 18th hole and she nearly did, with the ball checking up just three feet beneath the hole. She shot a final round 65.

“It looked really good in the air,” Park said. “I was hoping it would go in.”

Pak, who had four straight rounds in the 60s, served notice to Sorenstam that she faces an imposing task in trying to win 11 times again this year. Pak won five times herself last year, four of those coming with Sorenstam in the field.

“I’m really proud of myself,” said Pak, who finished at 23 under. “I really wanted to win this tournament.”

Surprisingly, Sorenstam played erratically, plodding along with pars on the same course where she made nine birdies a day before.

The most dominant player in women’s golf made only one birdie – two-putting the par-5 10th hole – and parred the rest. It was the second straight year she blew a final-round lead at the Moon Valley Country Club, where she lost last year in a playoff to Rachel Teske.

Pak caught Sorenstam with a tap-in eagle after hitting a fairway wood close on the fourth hole, added a second eagle with a 20-footer on the eight hole, and had a three-shot lead at the turn after shooting 30 on the front nine.

But she cooled off on the back nine and was only a shot ahead of Park when she took out a fairway wood for her tee shot on the par-4 17th hole.

Pak was playing it safe, but she pulled the shot into the water down the left side. She dropped in the light rough, hit an 8-iron to about 40 feet and then calmly rolled the ball in the cup for par.

Pak then played the 18th perfectly, hitting a drive down the right side and an iron to about 18 inches for a final birdie.

It was Sorenstam’s first competitive golf in five months, a time she used to go to cooking school, make plans to play against the men at Colonial and play a practice round with Tiger Woods.

The layoff didn’t seem to affect her as she opened with a 67, then improved a shot a day in the second and third rounds.

But in the final round Sorenstam grew increasingly frustrated as she missed putt after putt in the opening holes.

After hitting her drive into a fairway bunker on the eighth hole, she flipped her driver in the air in disgust.

Worse yet, the wedge play that had carried Sorenstam to nine birdies the day before deserted her, and she missed the green on both the seventh and eighth holes with a wedge in her hand.

Webb, who was tied with Sorenstam, Pak and Meunier-Lebouc after three rounds, was never a factor in the final round. She started out three shots back and shot a 2-over 38 on the front, including a bogey on the on the par-5 fourth when she missed the green with a wedge and took three to get down.

Divots: Before she bogeyed the sixth hole Sunday, Se Ri Pak had gone 43 holes without a bogey. … First prize was $150,000, out of a total purse of $1 million. … Despite playing in twosomes on a relatively short course with almost no rough, the leaders still took more than four hours to finish. … Rookie Lorena Ochoa had weekend rounds of 64 and 66 to finish at 17-under-par.

AP-ES-03-23-03 1943EST