One moment, it was a fairy-tale finish. Two of golf’s most popular forces–Tiger Woods and John Daly–dueling into extra holes with a playoff so riveting that it seemed to suck the air out of the course Sunday afternoon.
A better script couldn’t have been written.
Until shockingly . . . the most inconceivable letdown occurred.
Daly, standing over the sort of putt that makes weekend hackers nervous but should be a gimme for one of the world’s elite, missed a simple 3-footer on the second playoff hole to deliver Woods the American Express Championship title on a silver platter.
For a moment, the gallery seemed too stunned to believe that Daly’s putt really had banked the left rim of the No. 16 cup and slipped past the hole. Woods bowed and put a hand over his eyes, appearing almost sheepish to claim the title, and the $1.3 million winner’s check, in such a bizarre fashion.
An epic showdown between golf’s biggest hitters, who had spent the tournament launching 350-yard drives, was decided by a 36-inch putt.
And the electric atmosphere, worthy of Augusta National, that just seconds before permeated a postcard-perfect day instantly evaporated as the shoulders of 20,000 spectators sagged in disappointment. An incredible day of golf ended with a whimper, not a bang.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” said Daly, who held a two-stroke lead on the 16th hole. “I really thought I was going to make that putt. But what do you do? I know Tiger didn’t want to win that way and I sure didn’t want to lose that way.”
Woods echoed Daly’s sentiments as he sounded more apologetic than ecstatic about his sixth title of the year–and his eighth victory in nine career playoffs, including the Masters this spring.
“It just felt so bad,” said Woods, who was tied with Daly at 10-under-par 270 after regulation. “That’s not how you’re supposed to win a golf tournament. It shouldn’t end like that.”
But it did, and the last putt still doesn’t change the fact that it was the most remarkable final day of golf this side of a major championship.
Throughout the final 18 holes, Daly, the leader after the third round, had to spar with some of the sport’s biggest names: Sergio Garcia, Colin Montgomerie and, of course, Woods. The popular Daly, whose vocal supporters had transformed the course into their own Daly City, never had a chance to relax. He couldn’t stretch his lead beyond two shots as pursuers made their runs at the top of the leader board.
Daly held a one-shot edge when, on the 164-yard No. 17, Daly three-putted for a bogey to drop into in a tie with Woods.
Both Woods and Daly narrowly missed birdie putts of more than 20 feet on the challenging 468-yard No. 18 hole that hugs Lake Merced–sending them into a playoff that had the gallery buzzing. The first extra hole meant re-playing No. 18, and as they rode carts back to the tee, both golfers got a good look at the raucous crowd that lined the right side of the fairway.
“When we were heading back to the tee, I couldn’t hear anything,” Woods said. “In my left ear, I’m deaf from people whistling and screaming. And then after we were walking back down the fairway after our drives, I’m half-deaf in my right ear too. It was that loud. People were really into it.”
After they both scored pars, they headed for the 336-yard No. 16. It looked disastrous for Daly when he clipped a cypress tree branch on his drive. But then he hit a spectacular wedge shot through the trees that set up a birdie opportunity. After Woods missed a 22-footer for birdie and tapped in, Daly stood over his putt.
That he missed the 15-footer was excusable. But when Daly then botched the 3-footer for a tournament-ending bogey?
“I don’t think I threw it away,” said Daly, who still earned $800,000. “I played my heart out.”
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