Tiger Woods closed out what had become a foregone conclusion following his second-round 61, as he cruised to a seven-shot victory for his eighth career World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational and 79th career PGA Tour title on Sunday. Three more victories ties Woods with Sam Snead for the Tour’s career wins mark at 82.

Woods paired safe approach shots with a conservative putting stroke to card 16 pars, a birdie and a three-putt bogey in his final-round 70, en route to an 18th career WGC title. Geoff Ogilvy has the next highest WGC wins total, with three.

“Today I was just conservative,” Woods said. “I figured the highest score I could shoot was going to be 70 today … I just felt that this was a perfect day to protect.”

Defending champion Keegan Bradley put together a 3-under par final round to claim a share of second place along with Henrik Stenson, who played in Sunday’s final group with Woods. Stenson matched Woods with a final round score of 70.

Click here to see photos of Tiger’s golf clubs.

Jason Dufner finished the week with a 1-over 71, while Miguel Angel Jimenez and Zach Johnson posted rounds of 69 and 67, respectively, to match Dufner for the week at 6-under in a tie for fourth.

The win is Woods’ fifth of 2013, locking up his 10th season with five or more Tour victories, the most ever. Snead posted eight such seasons.

Woods now owns eight victories in both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, which is tops in history for a single event along with Sam Snead’s eight wins at the Greater Greensboro Open.

All facets of Woods’ game shined at one point or another during the week, leading to his 12th victory at a Tour event by seven or more shots. He led the field in birdies for the tournament (19), ranked second in greens in regulation (73.2 percent), fifth in putting average (1.67) and 11th in driving accuracy (63.6 percent).

Much of the focus — and understandably so — lies on Woods’ week and what lies ahead at next week’s PGA Championship, where Woods will look to put an end to his majorless streak and collect his 15th career major championship.

The WGC win is Woods’ 20th in his final start before a major, and is his fourth victory the week immediately before a major. In 2002, Woods won the Buick Open, then earned a runner-up finish at the PGA Championship. In 2007, he followed the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational up with a PGA Championship, while 2009’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational win came before another runner-up finish in the PGA Championship.

While some critics may not term Tiger as being “back” until he wins another major, five wins this season, a healthy lead in the Official World Golf Rankings and the No. 1 position in FedEx Cup points are all pretty telling signs of where Woods’ game is.