Tiger wins on Daly’s sudden-death gaffe

He missed the birdie, and figured it was over when Daly stood over his birdie putt moments later.

Loyalties were evenly divided from the gallery, and the fans about screamed themselves hoarse on the 18th hole in the playoff, the most daunting hole at Harding Park that requires a tee shot over Lake Merced and a row of cypress trees to a skinny fairway.

First came Woods, hammering away, the roar shaking the grounds when it found the middle of the fairway, then rolled into the first cut. Next up was Daly, a grip and a rip, then reaching over to pick up his cigarette as the ball landed some 10 yards ahead of Woods. Both had to settle for par.

Woods, who birdied the 16th in regulation, again went with iron off the tee and hit his approach weakly to 25 feet. Daly went with driver, and hit a cypress tree with such force that it dislodged another ball from the tree. He had just enough of an opening to smash a sand wedge over the bunker to 15 feet.

Woods thought the tournament was over when he missed his birdie putt. He was getting ready for the 17th hole when Daly missed again.

“I just felt so bad, because he played so solidly the entire week,” Woods said.

Woods will take it, though, along with the $1.3 million that pushed his season earnings over $9.9 million. With two tournaments left, he is in range of the record $10.9 million won by Vijay Singh a year ago.

The rest of the round was just as electric as the final hour.

Four of golf’s most notable figures — Daly, Woods, Montgomerie and Garcia — were locked in a four-way battle until Woods made a run at Daly, and the others couldn’t keep up.

Woods was three shots behind and finding more shade in the trees than sunshine on the fairways, but he fired off three straight birdies, the last one an approach from 205 yards into 3 feet to catch Daly at 10 under.

Daly responded by chipping in from 55 feet across the 13th green for birdie. In the group ahead, Woods went from rough-to-rough on the 14th and couldn’t recover, making bogey to fall two behind, and Daly again had control.

For all his length, a short putt cost him the lead at the 17th.

Another one in the playoff cost him the tournament.