It was about putters, not power

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. (AP) — The ”Battle at the Bridges” was supposed to be about power. Typical of any golf tournament, it came down to putting.

John Daly hit the longest drives as he and Phil Mickelson swept the four long-drive holes. Tiger Woods and Hank Kuehne made the clutch putts — four straight on the back nine at the Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe — to overcome a two-hole deficit for a 2-and-1 victory in the latest installment of Monday Night Golf.

”We got it going a little bit,” Woods said. ”It was nice to see a couple of putts go in.”

No one was more relieved than Kuehne.

The longest hitter in golf hit the shortest drive in the six-year history of these made-for-TV events. And that's saying something considering previous participants included Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam.

It was a drop-kick, duck-hook drive on the par-5 ninth hole that went about 180 yards before it died in the rough, well short of the fairway. It was the low point on a front nine in which Kuehne hit only one fairway — with an iron.

Ultimately, all that mattered was the shortest club in their bags.

Mickelson and Daly had their chances. Lefty narrowly missed a 12-foot birdie on the par-3 11th that would have given them a 3-up lead on the back nine.

Woods, who spent most of the night hitting the ball and dragging Kuehne, birdied the 13th from about 6 feet to get them back in the match, and then Kuehne took over from there.

After Mickelson's birdie rimmed around the cup and Daly's chip hit the stick and bounced away on the 14th, Kuehne holed an 8-foot putt to square the match. On the next hole, Kuehne blasted a drive that found the fairway — eureka! — and he followed that with a wedge into 12 feet for another birdie.

Then, he turned it over to Woods.

Woods blistered a 5-iron that stopped 25 feet away on the par-5 16th. After Mickelson chipped close, Woods holed the eagle putt for a 2-up lead, and the match ended on the next hole when Mickelson and Daly missed birdie putts.

”It's unfortunate,” Mickelson said. ”But boy, did they play well on the back nine.”

Woods and Kuehne split $1 million for winning, while Mickelson and Daly split $400,000. Woods is 4-2 in the Monday Night Golf events that began in 1999.

Mickelson and Daly got a small consolation by sweeping the four long-drive holes. Daly won with drives of 319 yards, 345 yards and 341 yards, and Lefty got the last one when the other three guys missed the fairway. His winning drive was a whopping 268 yards.

He and Daly won $300,000 for the long drives, half of which goes to the charity of their choice.

”It's a joke how far he can hit it,” Woods said of Daly. ”He makes it look so easy. Watch the balance he has. For a guy who hits it that far, he's always in balance.”

For a while, the joke was on Kuehne.

Winless on the PGA Tour, rarely in this kind of spotlight, his nerves were obvious on the front nine, and it reached rock bottom with his drive on No. 9.

”Obviously, I was extremely nervous and out of my comfort zone,” Kuehne said. ”It all came to a head at that beautiful ninth hole. That was honestly, probably the worst shot I've ever hit in competition.”

The exclusive gallery at the Bridges — members and guests only — got an early glimpse of the power on the practice range, which was reconfigured to keep the four players from taking out windows in the pricey houses behind the back end of the range.

The landing area was turned sideways, and green islands of grass in the brown foothills were the targets. The farthest one was 325 yards. Daly, then Woods, took turns crushing drives that sailed over the yardage marker.

Kuehne looked nervous as he tried to figure out which driver to use. He bashed his tee shots over a fence along the right side of the range, and they never came back.

Once the match started, not much changed.

Kuehne only hit one fairway on the front nine — that was with an iron, after Woods tried to drive the green on the 357-yard sixth hole and went into the water.

It was two against one, and Woods did his best to keep them in the game with birdies on Nos. 7 and 9, and keeping his ball in play as Kuehne took a wild ride through the Bridges of Rancho Santa Fe.

Daly gave his side a 1-up lead with a 15-foot birdie on the par-3 fourth, and they won the next hole when Mickelson holed a 12-footer to save par. Woods hit into the lip of a bunker off the tee, while Kuehne missed the fairway by some 40 yards to the right, into the water.

Daly-Mickelson had the tee for 10 straight holes until Woods started the comeback with a 6-foot birdie on the 13th, and then Kuehne finally showed up.

”The key thing for us was Tiger making that putt (on No. 13) to get our toe in the door,” Kuehne said. ”As the match went on, I started to feel more comfortable. I started to play like myself a little bit, instead of that guy on No. 9.”