Woods sets record as youngest to reach 50 PGA Tour victories

~ Tiger hits the mark at age 30 --Nicklaus was 33 -- and now aims for Snead's 82 career wins.

GRAND BLANC, Mich. -- The ultimate goal for Tiger Woods is to surpass Jack Nicklaus' record for victories in professional majors.

Along the way, he also hopes to break Sam Snead's mark for PGA Tour wins.

Woods won his 50th PGA Tour title Sunday, shooting his fourth straight 6-under 66 for a three-stroke victory over Jim Furyk in the Buick Open.

"I've had a lot of wonderful things happen to me in my career so far on tour in 10 years," he said. "It's been a great ride."

Woods reached a season-low 24 under and made a career-high 28 birdies in the tournament to hold off Furyk -- who closed with a 64 -- for his fourth win of the year. Woods earned $864,000 to push his tour-leading total to $5,127,563.

He picked up his latest win after his emotional victory in the British Open and before he bids for his 12th major in two weeks at the PGA Championship, where he hopes to close in on the record he covets: Nicklaus' 18 pro major championships.

Woods became the seventh member of the PGA Tour's 50-win club and improved to 21-for-21 when leading by more than one stroke after three rounds. The 30-year-old Woods beat Nicklaus' record pace to the milestone, which Nicklaus reached in 1973 at 33.

Snead is atop the PGA Tour's career wins list with 82, ahead of Nicklaus (73), Ben Hogan (64), Arnold Palmer (62), Byron Nelson (52) and Billy Casper (51).

Woods said "hopefully" he'll have enough success to catch Snead.

"It's going to be a lifetime, a career, to get to that point and attain something like that," Woods said. "It took me 10 years to get here, hopefully I can continue playing well over the next 10, 20 years."

Woods has made 196 PGA Tour starts as a pro and 210 overall. Nicklaus won his 50th title in his 280th start overall -- and 262nd as a professional.

Vaughn Taylor, who finished five shots back, is in awe of Woods.

"He's probably the greatest player to ever play the game, and we get to watch him every week," Taylor said. "I can't even imagine doing the things he's done."

This year, Woods' four victories have come in 11 events.