Originally published November 8, 2009 at 8:29 PM | Page modified November 8, 2009 at 8:29 PM

Mickelson wins, Moore 3rd

Phil Mickelson built a six-shot lead over the world's No. 1 player on the front nine, then rallied to beat another familiar foe, Ernie Els, with two clutch putts for a one-shot victory in the final World Golf Championship of the year.

By The Associated Press

SHANGHAI — Thousands of fans caused a bottleneck at the entrance to the HSBC Champions, all of them eager to see the Sunday showdown at Sheshan International between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

The Shanghai surprise? Woods turned out to be merely a spectator, too.

Mickelson built a six-shot lead over the world's No. 1 player on the front nine, then rallied to beat another familiar foe, Ernie Els, with two clutch putts for a one-shot victory in the final World Golf Championship of the year.

Mickelson closed with a 3-under 69 and won for the first time playing with Woods in the final group.

Ryan Moore of Puyallup, who qualified for the HSBC Champions by winning his first PGA Tour event in August, closed with a 68 to finish third, two shots behind Mickelson. It should be enough to move him into the top 50 in the world.

"That's my goal every tournament, even just going into the weekend, to just have a chance to be in the mix of things," Moore said. "And I did that this week."

Even with Woods out of the picture — he shot 72 and wound up five shots back — Mickelson provided his usual dose of entertainment.

Trailing by one shot, Mickelson whiffed on a risky flop shot below the 16th green, only to save par with perhaps his best putt of the year, an 18-foot slider that dropped on its final turn. He followed that with a 10-foot birdie on the 17th, which turned out to be the difference when Els hit into the water on the par-5 18th and made bogey.

"We all expected that Tiger and myself would be shooting in the mid-60s and pull away a little bit," Mickelson said. "And yet, our group was not making any birdies. It was the groups in front of us. And I was very fortunate to come out on top by a shot. But this feels terrific, because I had to fight very hard throughout the day. Nothing came easy."

That was particularly true for Woods.

"Anything that could go wrong went wrong for me today," Woods said. "Just one of those days."

Mickelson finished at 17-under 271 for his fourth victory of the year.

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