Fiji's Vijay Singh ran down Sergio Garcia then outlasted Garcia and Jim Furyk in a three-way playoff, winning the 5.6 million-dollar Wachovia Championship on the fourth hole of sudden death here Sunday. Singh and Furyk had both erased a six-shot deficit in regulation, posting final-round 66s to join overnight leader Garcia on 276, Furyk booking his playoff berth with a birdie at the last hole. Garcia managed only an even-par 72 in benign conditions, then fell by the wayside with a three-putt at the first extra hole.
Singh and Furyk then parred the next two holes, before Furyk pulled his into the creek along the fairway at the fourth playoff hole, the par-four 18th.
After a drop into deep rough he got it back in the fairway, then hit a superb fourth shot, which unluckily hit the pin and bounced away from the green, while Singh made an excellent shot out of a bunker and tapped in for par and his third PGA Tour victory of the year.
"It was pretty exciting at the end," Singh said. "I'm playing better golf than last year. It's just I won more times (nine) last year. When I come to a tournament, I feel I should win. It doesn't normally happen, but that's my mindset."
Chris DiMarco finished four shots behind in fourth place, while Phil Mickelson made a stunning charge before dropping three shots in his final two holes to tie for seventh, seven shots adrift.
The tournament was Garcia's to lose, and he offered no excuses after joining Greg Norman (1996 Masters), Bobby Cruickshank (1928 Florida Open), Gay Brewer (1969 Danny Thomas Classic) and Hal Sutton (1983 Anheuser-Busch Classic) as the only players to lose after taking a six-shot lead into the final round on the US tour.
"Coming down the stretch, it's not easy to hit perfect shots and unfortunately I hit a couple that cost me," he said. "They say you learn more from your losses than your wins, so I can take a lot of positive things out of this week. It's disappointing at the end, but other than that I played well all week."
Singh, ranked second in the world, padded his lead at the top of the PGA Tour money list as he collected 1,080,000 dollars for his 27th PGA Tour victory. He could afford to feel sympathy for Garcia.
"It's harder to play with a big lead," Singh said. "If you're five or six up, you don't want to lose the tournament, instead of trying to win it. That played a little bit in his mind. I'm thinking he was a little nervous out there. Anybody would be.
"If Sergio had played like he did yesterday, he would have blown us away," Singh added. "I thought 12-under was going to be the number starting off, and I was right.
"He didn't play badly, or shoot a high number. We actually caught him. He's going to feel (ticked) off for sure, but not as bad as Greg did losing the Masters."
Furyk noted that Garcia could have waltzed to victory if he'd putted better early in the round.
"He missed a tap-in (at the first hole)," Furyk said. "He hit a lot of good putts that didn't go in, and I'm sure he lost some concentration. Had he run the tables and knocked in three or four putts early, it might have been a different story."
Garcia's lead was gone in nine holes, after he pulled his tee shot into the trees to double-bogey the par-four ninth.
Singh reeled off four birdies in a row from the turn to vault two shots clear, and it was back-and-forth after that.
Singh bogeyed the par-five 15th after a poor chip from behind the green, while Garcia birdied the 14th and 15th to go back in front, only to pull a seven-iron into the water to bogey the 17th and fall back into a tie.
At the first extra hole, he missed a six-footer to the left to end his day. "I just didn't commit as much as I should have," he said.
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