LAS VEGAS — Nineteen holes was not enough to decide “The Match” between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on Friday at Shadow Creek.
So they settled it in true gambling fashion by making a makeshift 20th hole, played from the practice putting green behind the clubhouse to a newly cut hole on the 18th green.
And they had to play that three times before Mickelson finally prevailed, holing a 4-footer to win the winner-take-all match, 1-up.
Mickelson had missed a 6-footer the previous time they played the hole, then told Woods, “I don’t want to win this way,” and told him to pick up his 5-footer to tie.
Woods, who trailed by 1 hole before chipping in for birdie on the 17th hole, had a chance to win on the first extra hole — the 18th — but missed an 8-footer for birdie.
No player ever led by more than one hole. Woods took his only lead when he birdied the 11th to tie and then birdied the 12th to go 1-up. But Mickelson tied him with a birdie putt at the 14th then went ahead when Woods bogeyed the 15th.
Mickelson won three holes in regulation with pars.
He also won $600,000 in side bets from Woods, with the money ear marked for the Phil & Amy Mickelson Foundation. Woods won $200,000 when Mickelson failed to birdie the first hole, with that money going to the Tiger Woods Foundation.