Phil Mickelson beats Tiger Woods in face-off, wins $9M

Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Phil Mickelson beat Tiger Woods in The Match, winning a $9 million purse in Las Vegas.

After a deadlocked 18 holes, it took four playoff holes to decide the winner of the pay-per-view event on Friday at Shadow Creek.

The match began in dramatic fashion, with Woods winning a $200,000 bet with Mickelson because "Lefty" failed to make birdie on the first hole.

But Mickelson gained an advantage by making par on hole No. 2 as Woods' par putt lipped out. The decorated duo played each other even through hole No. 6 before Woods tied the match with a birdie on No. 7.

Mickelson made par on No. 8 to go up one stroke. Woods and Mickelson halved the next two holes before Woods squared the match once more with a birdie on No. 11. Woods gained his first lead with a birdie on No. 12, but Mickelson tied the match with a birdie on the next hole.

Woods and Mickelson halved hole No. 14 before "Lefty" earned another lead, besting Woods by a stroke on No. 15. The players tied on No. 16 before Woods tied it again with a chip-in for birdie on No. 17.

"Lefty" and Tiger halved the next three holes before they approached hole No. 22. Woods missed an 8-foot birdie putt while Mickelson rolled his in from 4-feet for the prize on the 93-yard, par-3 off Shadow Creek's practice putting green.

Mickelson did his post-match interview behind the stack of cash, while continuing to trash talk Woods.

"My heart can't take much more," Mickelson said on the broadcast. "This has been such an incredible opportunity to have a day like this with Tiger. A day like today isn't going to take anything away from his greatness. He's the greatest of all time. To be able to just have a little bit of smack talk for the coming years means a lot to me because I really don't have much on him."