Phil Mickelson raced out to a fast start and staved off the triumvirate of Tiger Woods, Arron Olberholser and Brett Wetterich by two strokes to win the Deutsche Bank Championship.

Mickelson shot a five-under-par 66 on Monday and finished the second event of the inaugural FedEx Cup play-off series tournament at 16-under-par 268 to claim his third victory of the year and a first-place cheque for US$1.26million (£624,190).

Mickelson won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and The Players Championship earlier this year.

Facing Woods head-to-head for the first time in 18 months, Mickelson never looked back after birdies at four of the first seven holes.

Mickelson took advantage of ideal playing conditions to card birdies on the second, fourth, fifth and seventh to erase a two-shot advantage by third-round leader Wetterich.

"Now the next step is to try to hopefully go head-to-head in a major," Mickelson said. "We don't get paired very often in majors, and hopefully next year in '08, we'll have a chance to do that."

Woods, the world number one, was four-under on Monday and finished at 14-under for the tournament.

He made a late charge by posting birdies on the 14th and 16th but was unable to sink a key 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th while a 33-foot putt for eagle on the 18th fell short, effectively ending his chance at victory.

"Unfortunately, I just didn't make enough putts to really push him," Woods said.

Olberholser shot two-under to finish in second place at 14-under, while Wetterich birdied his final hole for a 70 to join the second-place trio.

The victory put Mickelson atop the FedEx Cup points standings with 108,612, followed by Steve Stricker with 106,200 and Woods at 103,733.

The leading 70 on the FedEx Cup points list qualify for next week's BMW Championship.

The top 30 will then qualify for the Tour Championship in Atlanta, where a $10million (£4.95million) bonus will be earned by the overall points champion.

Collated final-round scores (USA unless stated, par 71):

268 Phil Mickelson 70 64 68 66

270 Arron Oberholser 69 66 66 69, Tiger Woods 72 64 67 67, Brett Wetterich 66 68 66 70

273 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 67 66 70 70

274 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 68 67 70 69, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 70 70 67 67

275 Robert Allenby (Aus) 69 69 70 67

276 Steve Stricker 67 69 69 71, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 66 72 70 68, Sean O'Hair 68 66 74 68, Camilo Villegas (Col) 63 72 69 72, Troy Matteson 71 66 69 70

277 Charlie Wi (Kor) 67 72 69 69, Lucas Glover 69 70 66 72, John Mallinger 73 69 67 68

278 Nathan Green (Aus) 72 70 67 69, George McNeill 71 69 70 68, Adam Scott (Aus) 68 72 66 72, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 67 71 68 72, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 69 66 72 71, Cliff Kresge 69 71 67 71

279 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 67 74 68 70, John Senden (Aus) 67 71 67 74, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 69 65 75, Heath Slocum 66 70 72 71, Jonathan Byrd 69 70 70 70, Jason Gore 70 71 64 74, Steve Elkington (Aus) 66 70 70 73

280 Zach Johnson 68 72 68 72, Woody Austin 71 68 70 71, Charles Howell III 69 69 72 70, Mark Wilson 73 68 72 67, Dean Wilson 70 71 71 68, Will MacKenzie 70 72 65 73, Paul Goydos 75 67 71 67, Mike Weir (Can) 65 68 74 73, Bo Van Pelt 68 69 69 74, Rich Beem 67 66 73 74, Briny Baird 71 68 67 74

281 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 74 67 68 72, Bart Bryant 72 67 66 76, Vaughn Taylor 68 73 68 72, Boo Weekley 73 69 66 73, Matt Kuchar 68 72 68 73, Ryan Moore 65 69 77 70

282 Kenny Perry 68 71 73 70, John Rollins 70 69 72 71, Douglas Labelle 73 69 69 71, Brandt Snedeker 71 72 73 66, Brian Bateman 69 72 70 71

283 Joe Ogilvie 70 69 72 72, Tom Pernice Jnr. 75 65 67 76, Rocco Mediate 71 72 66 74

284 Justin Leonard 72 70 75 67, Jim Furyk 68 73 69 74, Craig Kanada 67 68 72 77, Stephen Ames (Can) 68 73 69 74, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 66 73 75 70

285 Chad Campbell 70 70 71 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 74 66 73 72, Tim Herron 71 72 74 68, Luke Donald (Eng) 72 66 73 74, Tommy Armour III 68 70 72 75

286 Jerry Kelly 71 72 73 70, Jeff Maggert 69 73 70 74, Robert Garrigus 69 72 72 73, Ken Duke 70 72 69 75

287 Kevin Na (Kor) 71 71 69 76

288 Daniel Chopra (Swe) 70 70 74 74, Brian Gay 74 69 72 73

290 Brian Davis (Eng) 68 71 75 76, Charles Warren 69 74 73 74, Mark Calcavecchia 72 70 77 71

292 Steve Flesch 71 72 71 78