Tiger Woods downed fellow American John Daly at the second playoff hole here on Sunday to win the 7.5 million-dollar World Golf Championship American Express Championship.
Daly had a chance to force a third playoff hole, but his short par putt at 16 lipped out. Both had parred the first playoff hole, the difficult par-four 18th.
Daly's miss from about two feet handed Woods his 10th victory in 19 starts in the elite WGC series, but the world No 1 admitted he would have preferred to win another way.
"It just felt so bad," said Woods, who dropped his face into his hands when he saw Daly miss. "That's not the way you're supposed to win.
Woods improved his PGA Tour playoff record to an impressive 8-1, but it so easily could have been 7-2, because Daly had a 14-footer to win at the second extra hole.
However, with a chance to post his biggest win since the 1995 British Open at St Andrews, Daly misread the putt and hit it a little too hard.
Daly admitted the pressure got to him on his next putt.
Though he kept to his usual routine, taking little time, it was a weak stroke, and when his ball missed left, it was suddenly all over.
"I played that putt straight and it went dead left," he said. "If anything, I thought it would have gone right. I may have pulled it, I don't know.
"It's been a horrible putting year, and when you don't have a lot of confidence with your putter, especially when you have a chance to win, instead of feeling you're going to make them, I didn't feel I was going to make them.
"I was feeling the heat a bit more than him. You just hate to lose that way and I know he hated to win that way."
The two had finished regulation tied at 10-under 270, Woods with a closing 67 and Daly 69.
They were two shots ahead of a trio that shared third place: Scotland's Colin Montgomerie, Spain's Sergio Garcia and Sweden's Henrik Stenson.
Montgomerie, a seven-time European Order of Merit winner who was seeking his first official win on US soil, had led after each of the first two rounds. He closed with a 70, while Garcia shot 69 and Stenson 68 to join him on 272.
It was another three shots back to Britons David Howell and Graeme McDowell, Fiji's Vijay Singh and American David Toms, who all finished on 275 on the Harding Park golf course.
Woods was two shots behind with three holes left in regulation, but he birdied the 16th and when Daly, playing behind, made a three-putt bogey at the 17th, they were tied.
Both players hit massive drives at the par-four 18th, cutting the dogleg by going over the trees and posting matching pars in regulation.
Back at the 18th to start the playoff, they again made easy pars, before it ended at the 16th, where Woods made a tap-in par before watching Daly give it away.
Woods collected 1.3 million dollars for his fourth victory in this event, extending his lead at the top of the PGA Tour money list. He wasn't at the top of his game for much of the final round, but still found a way to close the deal.
"I didn't get off to the greatest of starts, didn't feel like I was hitting the ball all that well, but I just hung in there," he said. "JD wasn't running away with it and I held it together."
Boisterous galleries are nothing new to Woods, but he said Daly's presence made for even more animated fans.
"He brings a certain atmosphere all its own," Woods said. "People are going nuts, bananas, screaming. It was electric, loud and people were really into it. JD played beautifully all week and it shouldn't end like that."
Daly was disappointed with the finish, but not with the week.
"It's discouraging to lose that way, but I don't think I threw it away," he said. "I did on the second putt, but in regulation play I didn't. I played my heart out. It just wasn't meant to be."
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