KAPALUA, Hawaii — When his first career playoff on the PGA Tour finally ended unsuccessfully Sunday night, Madison resident Steve Stricker said his four extra holes against Daniel Chopra at the Mercedes-Benz Championship felt more like the final rounds of a boxing match than the final round of a golf tournament.

"We were kind of throwing jabs and feeling each other out and kind of seeing who was going to make the first mistake," Stricker said.

Unfortunately for Stricker, he was that guy.

His wayward second shot to the par-5 ninth hole on the fourth hole of the sudden-death playoff turned out to be the deciding blow in Stricker's quest for his fifth career PGA Tour victory. He couldn't get up-and-down from a tight greenside lie for birdie, while Chopra left his eagle putt on the lip — tapping in for his second PGA Tour victory.

Stricker, who started the day four shots off the lead, holed a shot from the fairway for eagle on the par-4 12th hole during regulation to highlight his final-round, 9-under 64. He birdied three of his last four holes to catch Chopra, who closed with a 66, at 18-under-par 274.

"It was a lot of fun," Stricker said of his final-round pursuit of the lead. "I told my caddie (Tom Mitchell) I need to birdie the last three to get to 19. ... We knocked it on the green in two on 15 and lipped out the eagle putt there. (We) birdied 16, and then lipped it out at 17, also. I really felt confident that I was going to make the putts, and I continued to make birdies.

"You know, I just had a target number in mind, and it was a lot of fun trying to get there."

Chopra, meanwhile, earned $1.1 million, a Mercedes-Benz sports car and a berth in the Masters for his victory.

Momentum shifted on just about every shot during the playoff, as both players had excellent chances to win.

On the first extra hole on the par-5 18th, Stricker putted from 120 feet away just off the green when his ball hit Chopra's large ball mark and took a big hop, losing so much speed that it stopped nearly 10 feet short of the hole. He missed the birdie putt.

Stricker realized the mark was somewhere around his line, but figured odds were low he would hit it.

Turned out he was wrong.

"It wasn't a coin," he said. "In hindsight, I should have had him mark with a penny. It took a lot of speed off. But you learn from that."

Chopra had a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th in regulation to win, but it stopped an inch short. In the playoff, he left his eagle putt some 7 feet short and missed that one to the right, a scene that began to look familiar.

His 25-foot birdie on No. 1, the second playoff hole, looked so good Chopra raised his putter and began to celebrate, then dropped to his knees and let the putter fall from his hands when the ball stopped on the edge of the cup. The second hole was Stricker's turn to win, and his 15-foot putt just turned away.

Chopra essentially won the tournament with a fairway metal to about 25 feet for eagle, and when that putt again was held up by a blade of Bermuda grass, he must have figured it was not meant for him to win.

"It felt like there was a goalie in the hole," Chopra said.

But it didn't matter when Stricker's chip came out too hot and the birdie putt stayed left of the cup all the way.

"It was no Tiger Woods and Ernie Els playoff, I can tell you that," Stricker said, referring to the eagle-birdie-birdie Woods had in 2000 to beat Els in a two-hole playoff.

Stephen Ames closed with a 66 to finish one shot out of the playoff. Mike Weir, who lost his one-shot lead on the first hole and didn't make a birdie until No. 9, rallied too late on the back nine and shot a 70 to finish two shots behind.