SAN FRANCISCO - Tiger Woods slowly removed his cap, put his hand over his face and drew it over his eye, looking very much like a man who had lost a playoff in the American Express Championship.

It was the only way to celebrate a stunning victory Sunday at Harding Park.

Woods had just missed a 25-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole, No. 16, and figured John Daly surely would pour in his 15-foot birdie putt for the win. When Daly's putt slid by the left side of the cup, Woods started mentally rehearsing the shot he wanted to hit on the par-3 17th.

His thoughts were interrupted by a shocking sight: Daly missed again, tournament over.

"It just felt so bad," Woods said after capturing his sixth victory of the year. "That's not how you're supposed to win a golf tournament. We're in a playoff, we're battling, and J.D. played beautifully all week. We should be playing 17. I was thinking I had 160 (yards), and I'm hitting a drawing 8-iron."

Instead, his next move was to hoist the trophy, his 10th title in the World Golf Championships.

Woods made up a two-shot deficit over the final three holes, closing with a 3-under 67 to match Daly at 10-under 270. Daly shot a 69 and had two birdie putts from about 15 feet to win - on the 18th hole in regulation, then on the 16th on the second extra hole. He missed them both, and was haunted by a couple of three-putt bogeys.

One of them was on the 17th hole from 30 feet, allowing Woods to get into the playoff. The other was cruel, a putt that caught the left edge of the cup and made Woods a winner.

Daly was so disgusted that he handed his putter to Frank Lopez, one of thousands of fans who hated to see this end.

"It's been a horrible putting year, and when you don't have a lot of confidence in your putter - especially when you have a chance to win - instead of feeling like you're going to make them, I didn't feel like I was going to make them," Daly said. "I know Tiger didn't want to win that way. I didn't want to lose that way. It's very disappointing."

Colin Montgomerie missed birdie putts of 6 and 10 feet to cost himself a chance for his first official victory on U.S. soil, but kept alive his hopes with a 12-foot birdie on the 17th to get within one shot.

But he missed the 18th green, chipped weakly and took bogey for a 70 that left him in a three-way tie for third at 8 under with Henrik Stenson (68) and Sergio Garcia (69).

The 8-foot par putt Monty missed on the last hole was worth $159,500. Still, he earned $353,666 to move past Michael Campbell atop the Order of Merit and is poised to win Europe's money title for the eighth time.

The other winner was Harding Park, the municipal course with a $16 million makeover that proved to be a worthy test for the best players in the world. Only 24 of the 71 players who started the event finished under par.

Some 20,000 people who crammed along the fairways and under cypress trees were treated to a regal show at a municipal gem in San Francisco, the first PGA Tour event since 1969. At the end of sunny afternoon along Lake Merced, golf turned into a rock concert as Woods and Daly headed for a playoff.

One of them is the best in the world, a Grand Slam champion twice over at age 29. The other is a chain-smoking, overweight slugger who relates to the common man.

No one left early.

"When we were taking the carts back up to get to the (18th) tee, I couldn't hear anything," Woods said. "In my left ear, I'm half-deaf, people whistling and screaming. And then we hit our shots, and my right ear I'm half-deaf. It was electric. It was loud. People were really into it."

How they got there was no less riveting.

It shaped up as a four-way battle along the front nine among Daly, Woods, Montgomerie and Garcia, four of the most notable games in golf.

The seventh hole alone sent the gallery into a frenzy.

Woods tried to drive the 344-yard hole and wound up left, presumably with no shot until he popped up a wedge that came within inches of going in. In the final group behind him, Garcia holed a wedge from 110 yards for eagle to tie Daly for the lead. Montgomerie holed a 20-foot birdie to join Woods, one shot behind.

Garcia faltered quickly, Montgomerie was stuck in neutral. Woods was the only one to make a move on Daly, and he caught him with three straight birdies to start the back nine, the last one a 205-yard approach to 3 feet.

Daly answered with a chip-in for birdie from 55 feet across the 13th green, and when Woods went rough-to-rough for a bogey on the 14th, Daly had a two-shot lead and was seemingly in control.

Daly being Daly, it wasn't that simple.

The victory was worth $1.3 million for Woods and gave him a career-high $9.9 million. With two tournaments left, he has a chance to surpass the record $10.9 million won last year by Vijay Singh.

And it was more validation for Woods, whose swing changes were ridiculed last year. His six victories this year include two majors, two World Golf Championship and two other tournaments that featured some of the strongest fields (Doral and Torrey Pines).

"I've really worked hard to get to this point," Woods said.

For this victory, he needed some help.