Thousands of fans caused a bottleneck at the entrance to the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, all of them eager to see a 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 Championships event of the year.

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

Even with Woods out of the picture -- he shot 72 and wound up five shots behind -- 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.

He looked out of sorts from the start, missing birdie putts of 4 feet and 10 feet, then taking double bogey on the par-3 fourth when he hit into a canal left of the green where residents on the other side routinely dump their garbage.

Mickelson finished at 17-under 271 and earned $1,200,000 for his fourth victory of the year, matching his career-best. Els tied the course record with 63.

• Mizuno Classic: South Korea's Bo Bae Song won her first LPGA Tour title, closing with a 4-under 68 for a three-stroke victory over Lorena Ochoa (64), Brittany Lang (68) and Hee Young Park (68) in Shima, Japan. Song finished with a 15-under 201 total and earned $210,000 in the event co-sanctioned by the Japan LPGA. Jiyai Shin, the 2008 winner who is trying to hold off Ochoa in the player of the year points race, closed with a 69 to tie for fifth.

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