Tiger Woods and John Daly made the PGA Tour feel like a rock concert Sunday, the delirium reaching such decibels that Woods felt his eardrums pounding as golf’s two biggest sluggers headed for a sudden-death playoff at Harding Park in San Francisco.
It was a titanic struggle that ended with a whimper.
Despite their 350-yard tee shots that soared majestically against the blue sky over Lake Merced, the American Express Championship came down to a putt that would have been a gimme on most municipal golf courses.
Daly, who seconds earlier had a 15-foot birdie putt to win, missed a 3-footer for par on the second extra hole to hand Woods his 10th title in the World Golf Championships.
“That’s not how you’re supposed to win a golf tournament,” Woods said. “We’re in a playoff, we’re battling and J.D. played beautifully all week. It shouldn’t end like that.”
It was a somber conclusion to an otherwise spectacular tournament at San Francisco’s municipal gem.
Woods, he of the massive fist pumps and megawatt smile, bowed his head and drew his hand over his right eye as if he had just lost the tournament.
Daly walked off the 16th green and handed his putter, which betrayed him over the closing holes, to Frank Lopez, one of thousands of faces in the gallery who hated to see this end.
“I really thought I was going to make the (birdie) putt,” Daly said. “You know, what do you do? I know Tiger didn’t want to win that way, and I certainly didn’t want to lose that way.”
Woods made up a two-shot deficit over the final three holes to force a playoff and closed with a 3-under 67. He won the American Express Championship for the fourth time in six starts and is 10-for-19 in the World Golf Championships that count toward official money.
It was his sixth victory of the year and the third time golf’s best closer had to rally in the final round. Considering he had a swing he couldn’t trust, and a lingering rib injury that required treatment all week, this might have been as impressive as any.
“I didn’t really have my best stuff this week, but I still hung in there with my mind and putted beautifully, and hit shots when I really had to,” Woods said.
Daly closed with a 69, three-putting from 30 feet on the 17th to crack the door open for Woods.
Champions Tour: Jay Haas rallied with a 7-under 65 for his first tour victory, a two-stroke win at the Greater Hickory Classic in Conover, N.C.
The 51-year-old Haas, who splits time between the PGA Tour and the 50-and-over tour, finished with a tournament-record 16-under 200.
Second-round leader Dana Quigley finished second after a 2-under 70.
LPGA: Chile’s Nicole Perrot earned her first tour victory, rallying from a two-shot deficit to win the Longs Drugs Challenge in Auburn, Calif.
She finished at 14-under 270, one shot ahead of South Korea’s Hee-Won Han (69).
