AKRON, Ohio (AP) – If anyone had questions about Stewart Cink being chosen for the Ryder Cup team, he answered them with authority Sunday at the NEC Invitational, never letting anyone within two shots and becoming the first wire-to-wire winner this year on the PGA Tour.

The last man to make the U.S. team, Cink was first at Firestone from start to finish.

He closed with an even-par 70 in a final round where par was a worthy score, ending the day in style with a 15-foot birdie putt that gave him a four-shot victory over Tiger Woods and Rory Sabbatini.

Cink finished at 11-under 269 and earned $1.2 million, the largest payoff of his career.

Woods never had a chance after chipping through the green and into a bunker for bogey on the opening hole. He finished with a rare birdie for a 69, and continued his streak of never finishing worse than fifth at Firestone.

He also will keep his No. 1 ranking for another week – 263 weeks in a row – when Vijay Singh and Ernie Els both suffered a letdown after a dramatic week at the PGA Championship.

Singh, who won at Whistling Straits in a playoff, shot 70 in the final round and tied for 32nd. Els never broke par all week, closed with a 72 and tied for 65th. He won’t play again until the American Express Championship the last week of September in Ireland.

Sabbatini was the only player to give Cink a scare, making a 20-foot birdie on the 14th hole to get to 8 under, just two shots behind. But the diminutive South African bogeyed two of the next three holes to fall back, and Cink was solid over the last eight holes.

Sabbatini shot 68, his best finish ever in a World Golf Championship.

The timing could not have been better for Cink – or Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton.

Cink finished 14th in the standings after the PGA Championship, but Sutton picked him over Steve Flesch (No. 11) and Jerry Kelly (No. 13), also leaving off the team Scott Verplank and British Open champion Todd Hamilton.

Cink won the MCI Heritage earlier this year and was starting to play his best golf with the Ryder Cup approaching. Sutton also liked the fact Cink ranked No. 1 in putting on the PGA Tour.

All of that was on display at Firestone, where Cink had full command of his game for four rounds, two rain delays and a different cast of contenders over the weekend.

Cink had been 0-6 when leading going into the last round, and while he never had a margin as wide as five shots like he did Sunday, Firestone was tough enough that anyone not on top of his game would pay the price.

Greens began to dry out under a second straight day of sunshine, and it didn’t take long to figure out that this would be a day for Cink to hang on.

David Toms missed three of the first five fairways and was unable to reach the green, each time taking bogey. While not as dense as the rough in a U.S. Open, the grass was 8 inches long in spots and not a good place to be Sunday.

Woods, playing in the same group with Toms ahead of the final pairing, missed the first green in a small bowl of thick grass. As soon as his chip came out, Woods knew he was in trouble.

“Bite! Bite!” he implored, only to see the ball roll past the cup, off the green and into a bunker for a bogey he could not afford from five shots behind.

Chris DiMarco had plenty of opportunities to drop shots, too, but he hung around with a collection of key saves.

One came on the third, when his approach clipped some branches and dropped in the pond, but he hit a wedge to 8 feet and escaped with bogey. Another came on the par-3 fifth, when he missed the green well to the right but hit a great flop shot to 4 feet for par.

Cink, however, was just steady enough.

He saved par with an 8-footer on the fourth, then built his lead to six shots with a 20-foot birdie on the par-3 fifth. Cink pulled his tee shot into the rough on the next hole and could only advance it out to the fairway. He took bogey, but it wasn’t enough to give the field much hope.

That was OK with Cink, who didn’t need to endure any drama.

He went through enough last week when he had to wait for a phone call from Sutton.

Divots: The rain delays earlier is the week kept Padraig Harrington from seeing his cousin, Detroit Lions quarterback Joey Harrington, who played an exhibition game Saturday against the Cleveland Browns. Harrington was at the bottom of the back, but because of a two-tee start brought on my rain, he was among the last to finish. “Last off in the field, you don’t get to go places,” Harrington said. … Lee Westwood will decide when he gets home whether to defend his title in the BMW International Open at Germany. His wife is expecting later in the week. … Davis Love III closed with a 66 and tied for fourth to earn $282,500, pushing him over $3 million this year despite not winning.

AP-ES-08-22-04 1846EDT