Florida: Tiger Woods was voted the Player of the Year by his fellow US PGA Tour players, tour commissioner Tim Finchem announced here Tuesday.

Woods captured the honour for the eighth time in his famed career for a year that saw him raise his all-time major win total to 12 by capturing the British Open and PGA Championship.

"It's always an honor to get the respect of your peers and this year has been an interesting one to say the least on the golf course as well as off," Woods said.

The success came in a year that also brought Woods great sadness as his father Earl lost his battle with cancer. Woods missed the cut at the US Open in the first event after his father's death but recovered top form after that.

"I played as bad as I did at the US Open and to get it going after that, it was nice, because I was playing well early in the year and then in the springtime got a little bit more," Woods said.

"I went back to the same things I was working on at the beginning of the year and they started clicking in and I won a few tournaments."

Moving ever nearer to Nicklaus' record of 18 career major titles, Woods won eight events and led the US PGA Tour with 9.9 million dollars in prize money.

He also won the Byron Nelson Trophy for the low US PGA Tour scoring average at 68.11 strokes a round.

"Tiger has shown a remarkable ability to raise his game to the highest level and then sustain that excellence," Finchem said. "Winning the Jack Nicklaus Trophy for the eighth time in 10 years is testimony to his greatness."

Woods won two World Golf Championship events for the fifth times in his career and improved his career victory total to 54, fifth on the all-time win list.

South African Trevor Immelman, who won the Western Open and took home more than 3.8 million dollars in prize money, was named the US PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.

American Steve Stricker was named the US PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year. In 17 starts, Stricker posted seven top-10 finishes, including a share of second at the Booz Allen Classic. He was 34th on the money list with more than 1.8 million dollars.