Sergio Garcia matched the biggest final-round collapse in PGA Tour history as Vijay Singh won the Wachovia Championship.

Singh capped off a day of high drama at Quail Hollow when he parred the fourth extra hole to win a three-way play-off against Garcia and Jim Furyk after they earlier had finished regulation locked at 12-under-par 276, four shots ahead of Chris DiMarco.

Garcia started the final round with a six-shot lead, but shot just a meek even-par 72, while Singh and Garcia stormed home in 66.

Singh padded his lead at the top of the PGA Tour money list as he collected £572,000 for his 27th PGA Tour victory and third this year.

"It is harder to play with a big lead," Singh said. "If you are five or six up, you don't want to lose the tournament, instead of trying to win it. That played a little bit in his mind. I am thinking he was a little nervous out there. Anybody would be. If Sergio had played like he did on Saturday he would have blown us away (but) I thought 12-under was going to be the number starting off, and I was right.

"He didn't play badly, or shoot a high number. We actually caught him. He is going to feel (ticked) off for sure, but not as bad as Greg did losing the Masters (blowing a six-shot lead in 1996)."

The tournament was Garcia's to lose, and he offered no excuses after joining Norman, Bobby Cruickshank (1928 Florida Open), Gay Brewer (1969 Danny Thomas Classic) and Hal Sutton (1983 Anheuser-Busch Classic) as the only players to lose after taking a six-shot lead into the final round on the PGA Tour.

"Coming down the stretch, it is not easy to hit perfect shots and unfortunately I hit a couple that cost me," he said.

"They say you learn more from your losses than your wins, so I can take a lot of positive things out of this week. It is disappointing at the end, but other than that I played well all week."

Furyk, who drained a seven-foot birdie at the 72nd hole to join the play-off, observed that Garcia could have waltzed to victory if he had putted better early in the round.

"He missed a tap-in (at the first hole)," Furyk said.

"He hit a lot of good putts that did not go in and I am sure he lost some concentration. Had he ran the tables and knocked in three or four putts early, it might have been a different story."

Garcia's lead was gone in nine holes, after he pulled his tee shot into the trees to double-bogey the par-four ninth. Singh reeled off four birdies in a row from the turn to vault two shots clear, and it was back-and-forth after that.

Singh bogeyed the par-five 15th after a poor chip from behind the green, while Garcia birdied the 14th and 15th to go back in front, only to pull a seven-iron into the drink to bogey the 17th and fall back into a tie.

And so it went to a play-off, with Garcia bowing out at the first extra hole, where he three-putted, missing a six-footer to the left.

"I just did not commit as much as I should have," he said.

Singh and Furyk traded pars at numbers 16 and 17 before they returned to the par-four 18th, where Furyk was the first to crack, finding the creek left of the fairway with his drive.

"I was trying to cut it off the left and I just hit a slight pull," he lamented.

He took a penalty stroke and dropped into thick rough, before hacking his third shot back to the fairway. Singh, meanwhile, had fanned a six-iron into a greenside bunker and Furyk figured that if he got up-and-down for bogey, he still had a chance.

His fourth shot was a beauty, too good in fact, hitting the pin and clattering all the way off the green. Singh then stiffed his bunker shot, tapped in for par, and it was all over.

"It was pretty exciting at the end," said the 42-year-old from Fiji.

"I am playing better golf than last year. It's just I won more times (nine) last year. When I come to a tournament, I feel I should win. It doesn't normally happen, but that's my mindset."

Collated final round scores and totals in the Wachovia Championship, Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte, North Carolina (USA unless stated, par 72):

276 Vijay Singh (Fij) 70 69 71 66 (Won playoff at fourth extra hole), Jim Furyk 69 72 69 66, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 66 71 67 72

280 Chris DiMarco 74 67 73 66

282 Vaughn Taylor 74 70 71 67, Carlos Franco (Par) 72 74 70 66

283 Phil Mickelson 71 73 73 66, Greg Owen (Eng) 74 67 71 71

284 D.J. Trahan 72 67 71 74

285 Billy Mayfair 76 72 70 67

286 Kenny Perry 68 76 69 73, Scott Verplank 71 69 73 73, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 73 74 68 71, Nick Watney 76 68 73 69, Tiger Woods 70 72 73 71

287 Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 70 71 74 72, Mark Hensby (Aus) 73 71 72 71, Fred Funk 70 75 70 72, Adam Scott (Aus) 76 69 69 73, Jeff Sluman 71 70 75 71, Brett Quigley 71 69 77 70

288 John Rollins 71 74 69 74, Brandt Jobe 74 68 75 71, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 71 76 70 71, Charles Howell III 72 75 73 68, Nick Price (Zim) 73 69 69 77, Bill Haas 74 71 74 69

289 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 72 72 73 72, Woody Austin 71 73 75 70, Hank Kuehne 75 70 74 70, Bart Bryant 70 74 75 70, Tommy Armour III 76 72 72 69

290 Patrick Sheehan 68 75 70 77, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 68 72 73 77, Chad Campbell 71 77 72 70, Kevin Sutherland 72 71 74 73, Steve Flesch 76 72 72 70, Jay Haas 73 74 71 72, Joey Sindelar 68 71 73 78, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 73 72 69 76, Dean Wilson 73 71 69 77, Tom Pernice Jnr. 74 74 70 72, Craig Barlow 71 75 73 71

291 J.L. Lewis 73 75 72 71, Brian Gay 74 71 75 71, Justin Rose (Eng) 71 74 77 69, Marco Dawson 73 73 72 73, Brad Faxon 72 76 73 70, Steve Allan (Aus) 74 73 72 72

292 Ted Purdy 73 70 75 74, Dennis Paulson 73 74 76 69, Tag Ridings 70 74 73 75, Andrew Magee 69 75 72 76, Mark O'Meara 72 76 71 73, Kevin Na (Kor) 74 74 72 72

293 Tom Byrum 74 73 76 70, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 69 73 75 76, Ben Curtis 71 72 75 75, Heath Slocum 73 75 74 71, Shaun Micheel 74 71 73 75, Paul Azinger 72 75 74 72, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 75 73 75 70, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 75 68 76 74

294 Sean O'Hair 73 74 77 70, Scott Hend (Aus) 74 74 71 75, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 75 72 69 78, Robert Damron 72 74 73 75

295 Jay Williamson 73 75 75 72, Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 74 72 77 72, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 72 76 76 71, Duffy Waldorf 74 73 78 70

296 Steve Lowery 72 76 71 77

297 Skip Kendall 71 76 76 74

298 Bo Van Pelt 72 74 74 78

299 Robert Gamez 75 71 74 79, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 71 75 73 80, Todd Hamilton 72 76 77 74

301 Tom Kite 74 73 75 79

303 Craig Perks (Nzl) 76 70 79 78