PALM HARBOR, Nov 1: Fiji's Vijay Singh became the first player in PGA Tour history to earn more than $10 million in a single season by winning the Chrysler Championship on Sunday.

Singh polished off his ninth victory of the season in style, making a birdie at the 18th hole to shoot a six-under-par 65 for the round and an 18-under 266 for the tournament.

The world number one finished five shots ahead of runners-up Sweden's Jesper Parnevik and Tommy Armour III.

Joe Durant, with an eight-under 63, took solo fourth on 272, while Kirk Triplett placed fifth another shot back.

Australia's Robert Allenby and David Toms were joint sixth on 274.

The Chrysler payoff of $900,000 boosted Singh's earnings to $10,725,166 and broke Tiger Woods' mark of $9,188,321 in 2000.

"I'm really excited, an unbelievable day today," Singh said. "I really wanted to win this one.

"I wasn't going to let it go. I achieved what I set out to do this morning and just played solid golf, focused all the way out.

"Tommy played pretty good and just kept in touch, so it kept my focus up, as well. I'm really glad to have completed this task."

Singh also became the first player since Woods in 2000 to win nine titles in one season. Singh gets a shot at his 10th win next week in the season-ending Tour Championship.

The last player to win at least 10 titles in a season was Sam Snead who had 11 victories in 1950.

Singh will have little time to celebrate his achievement. He leaves for Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club on Monday.

With none of the contenders making a move on Sunday, Singh separated himself from the field early. He reached three-under on his round through five holes, then put together back-to-back birdies at the ninth and 10th.

Another birdie at the 13th all but sealed the title.

Armour, who carded a 69, managed to hang around in second place but drifted to three shots and sometimes four behind Singh.

He trailed by three playing the 72nd hole, but bogeyed the last to drop back into a tie with Parnevik.

Final round scores

266 Vijay Singh 65 69 67 65

271 Jesper Parnevik 68 67 68 68, Tommy Armour III 70 64 68 69

272 Joe Durant 68 71 70 63

273 Kirk Triplett 64 71 68 70

274 Robert Allenby 70 67 69 68, David Toms 70 69 67 68

275 Kenny Perry 70 68 70 67, Spike McRoy 69 72 66 68, Carl Pettersson 68 68 70 69

276 Tag Ridings 72 69 71 64, Tim Clark 69 69 70 68

277 Lee Janzen 67 72 70 68, Kevin Na 70 70 68 69, Jay Haas 67 70 70 70, Tom Carter 73 67 65 72

278 Kent Jones 64 71 75 68, Bob Estes 70 70 70 68, Craig Parry 68 72 69 69

279 Geoff Ogilvy 72 67 70 70, Retief Goosen 69 73 66 71, Matt Kuchar 69 72 66 72, Jeff Sluman 62 70 74 73.-Reuters