Phil Mickelson wins US Tour Championship as Tiger Woods pockets $10 million

Mickelson picked up the $1.35 million first prize thanks to a final-round, five-under-par 65 that reeled in overnight leader Kenny Perry, who had begun the day four shots in front of the left-hander and gave him a three-stroke victory over Woods, who started the round two shots in front.

Woods, chasing his seventh PGA Tour title of the year, did enough with his closing level-par 70, however, to claim second place and with it the FedEx Cup title and the big-money bonus.

Mickelson joked about the disparity in pay cheques each man took away from the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, but recognised Woods' reward was for his consistency throughout the year and his performance in the FedEx Cup play-offs.

"I don't know if I understand this right but I shot 65 and Tiger shot 69 and he gets a cheque for $10 million," Mickelson joked.

"I thought that it would have been great if I had played better in the first three FedExCup events. I played terrible score-wise. I hit it well, but I didn't get much out of it.

"Had I put myself in a position to where we had the entire FedEx Cup on the line coming down the stretch, that would have been even more exciting. But I felt like the day turned out well."

He added: "I was two back off him, I beat him by three. He gets the $10 million cheque and I get the $1 million. I've got no problem with that, I just love holding this [trophy] finally."

Mickelson will link up with Woods and his fellow Americans for the President's Cup against the International team in San Francisco in two weeks, but the world No3 is already looking ahead to the 2010 season after a year in which he took time off mid-season following diagnoses of breast cancer for both his wife and mother.

"I'm excited to get 2009 behind me and look forward to 2010," he said.

"I'm excited about this off-season, to be able to spend more time doing fun things, vacations, what have you, with Amy and the kids, and I'm excited about where my golf game is headed in that I know where my long game is headed with Butch [Harmon's] guidance, and I know where my short game is headed with both Daves' [Stockton and Pelz] guidance, and I'm excited about what 2010 brings."

Woods said he was also looking forward to facing a revitalised Mickelson over the next 12 months.

"Why wouldn't you?" Woods said of his long-time rival. If you look at my career so far, I've had probably three main guys I've played against since the inception of my career, Phil, Ernie [Els] and Vijay [Singh], where we've gone at it consistently throughout my 13 years out here.

"So certainly I would love to go at it again with him. We've had certain runs where we've battled a lot, and I think with those three main guys I've been consistent throughout my entire career.

"It's been a lot of fun. That's kind of been my generation of guys to deal with for over a decade."