Daly's fatal missed putt ends classic duel with Tiger

	John Daly reacts after missing his three-foot putt on the second hole of a playoff with Tiger Woods. AP
	MAILBAG Gary Van Sickle will answer select questions from SI.com users each week in his Inside Golf column. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

SAN FRANCISCO -- John Daly versus Tiger Woods? Man, that's the best matchup since Predator versus Alien or King Kong versus Godzilla.

The Daly-Tiger bout was considerably more lopsided than the latter two. Be honest, you wouldn't have bet your entire collection of Debbie Boone CDs on Daly. He was the underdog. Here's the catch: Daly was the fans' favorite (although it was a close call, since San Francisco and Harding Park qualify as a home game for Woods, who played two years of college golf at Stanford before turning pro) and, oh yeah, Woods was scraping by without his A-game.

It was a great matchup, much more interesting than Woods versus nice guy Ernie Els; Woods versus go-for-broke, never-won-the-big-one-until-last-year Phil Mickelson; Woods versus world No. 2 Vijay Singh, who does not stir much emotion in the public; or Woods versus Retief Goosen, who can still walk down a street in New York City without being recognized.

Daly versus Tiger pitted golf's biggest, boldest and, well, best-est bombers (and kids, don't try using that adjective at home without a parent's supervision) in a classic duel.

Tiger is a student of the game, one of the smartest players who's ever lived, one of the mentally toughest, and the possessor of one of the best short games ever seen, which makes him difficult to beat.

Daly isn't a student of anything, other than Hooters parking lots. Daly was the game's longest hitter before Tiger came along. He may still have the edge but Tiger is as long as he needs to be and that's still pretty darned long.

Daly usually travels by motorhome on tour, often parks in Hooters parking lots and sells cheesy merchandise from his trailer. Tiger travels by private jet with an entourage. He owns a yacht. He basically rented an entire island to ensure privacy for his marriage (he's still three behind Daly in that category, by the way).

Woods has an array of shots. Daly plays grip-it-and-rip-it golf. Tiger is a fitness fanatic and probably the strongest player on tour. Daly is overweight (although he claims he's dropped 35 pounds since topping out at 275 last year) and a smoker. They're as different as Batman and the Incredible Hulk.

That's what made Sunday's AmEx wind-up so compelling. Woods won, of course, but it wasn't easy. Give Daly credit, he gamely pushed Woods to the limit. Granted, Woods wasn't at his best, but so what? It made for great theater and it came right at a time when observers were wondering about the significance of the AmEx Championship in October in a world glutted with too many golf tournaments, especially in the middle of football season and the baseball playoffs.

It's amazing what one marquee matchup and some exciting golf can solve.

Daly would've won this thing, in fact, if not for his putter. That was the only part of his game that let him down. He three-putted from 30 feet for bogey at the par-3 17th hole Sunday, letting Woods sneak back into a tie for the lead. Then, on the second playoff hole, Daly appeared to have the edge. Woods left his 25-foot birdie putt half an inch short. Daly had a 14-footer. Then he gassed it three feet past the hole and missed the par putt coming back. A sympathetic Woods put one hand over his eyes out of respect.

"The first putt, for it to break left, was just really weird," Daly said later. "The second one, coming down the hill, broke left. If anything, it should have gone right. I may have pulled it, I don't know."

It was a long run for a short slide. Woods and Daly enjoyed an entertaining duel throughout the day. Woods birdied three holes in a row starting at the 10th, then Daly ran into trouble at the par-4 13th, hacking his second shot out of the left rough into a trampled lie behind the green. Naturally, he chipped it in. Then Woods bogeyed the next hole and Daly suddenly had a two-shot lead and the tournament in hand, apparently.

Asked if he was thinking about holing that chip, Daly said, "I was just trying to get it on the green."