DULUTH, Ga. - Phil Mickelson needed a bit of excitement and some competition before defending his Masters title. He got plenty of both at the BellSouth Classic.

Mickelson knocked in a 13-foot birdie putt on the fourth playoff hole Monday to win the event over Rich Beem and gain momentum going into the opening round Thursday at Augusta.

"Well, it is very nerve-racking and you feel the butterflies when you're in a sudden-death playoff," Mickelson said, emphasizing the importance of the closing holes of regulation. "I needed to make birdies to get into a playoff."

He was up to the challenge. After shooting a 1-over 37 on the front nine, Mickelson had four birdies on the back, including one on the 18th to finish at 69 and make a five-man playoff.

"Feeling that anxiety, that excitement, the stuff that I feel every day in a major championship, it's great for me to prepare for the Masters this way, to have that feeling just a couple days before Thursday," he said.

Mickelson was asked if he was aware that only one player had ever won the week before the Masters, then won at Augusta.

"Sandy Lyle, 1988," he said immediately. "I look at it as a great way to build some momentum, to take the intensity and the focus that I had on the back nine to get in the playoff and take that into Thursday's opening round."

Mickelson, Beem, Jose Maria Olazabal, Brandt Jobe and Arjun Atwal tied at 8-under 208 after the final round in the rain-shortened 54-hole tournament.

Jobe and Atwal were knocked out on the first playoff hole, and Olazabal was out after the third.

Mickelson won it on the par 4, 455-yard 17th hole when he hit his drive in the fairway and put his second shot 13 feet from the hole before sinking the putt.

Beem, who hasn't won since the PGA championship in 2002, hit into a fairway bunker on the final playoff hole. His second shot was about 20 yards short of the green, and he pitched to about 2 feet to set up a par putt that wasn't necessary.

"I'm bummed out the way that everything finished. But I've got to be happy with how I handled myself," Beem said. "It's been a long time since I've been in this position and I had an absolute gas doing it.

"The only thing I would change obviously is the outcome, but I can't do that."

Olazabal, the two-time Masters champion, had two chances to win. The first came in regulation on the par 5, 576-yard 18th, but her missed a 5-foot birdie putt and settled for par and 69.

His next opportunity came on the first playoff hole, missing another 5-foot birdie putt on No. 18. He was eliminated on the third playoff hole when he hit two balls in the water on 18.

"I had a chance to win it (in regulation) and didn't. Had a second chance and missed it," said Olazabal, who also heads to the Masters with his game in pretty good shape.

Mickelson, Beem (68), Brandt (67) and Atwal (64), a native of India and a regular on the Asian tour for eight years, birdied their last hole to earn a playoff berth along with Olazabal.

Mickelson and Beem had pars on the first playoff hole to advance to the second playoff hole along with Olazabal. Jobe and Atwal hit into the water that guarded the green on 18, and were eliminated.

Olazabal, Mickelson and Beem parred the second playoff hole - the 455-yard, par-4 17th - to send it back to 18 for the third playoff hole.

Mickelson and Beem made it to the fourth playoff hole when each had tap-in birdies on No. 18.

The weather was sunny and in the 70s Monday, in contrast to the first two rounds which were washed out Thursday and Friday and delayed 99 minutes Saturday by rain and snow flurries.

Scott McCarron, who won here at the TPC at Sugarloaf twice previously, held a one-stroke lead entering the final round but shot a 76 and was well back at 214. Defending champion Zach Johnson had a 72 and was at 213.

Mickelson, the tour's leading money-winner, earned $900,000 of the $5 million purse in earning his third win of the year.

Tied for sixth, a stroke back, were Frank Lickliter (68), Scott Dunlap (69), Arron Oberholser (69), and Tag Ridings (69).

Rain has affected eight of the 14 tournaments on tour so far this year.