Colombian Camilo Villegas stormed from five strokes behind in the final round before beating Sergio Garcia in a play-off for the Tour Championship on Sunday.

Villegas compiled five birdies in six holes from the eighth on his way to a closing four-under-par 66 at East Lake.

Garcia's final round 71 left both players on seven under par, one stroke ahead of American duo Phil Mickelson (69) and Anthony Kim (69) in an exciting finish.

Villegas subsequently won with a par at the first extra hole, the par-three 18th, after Garcia sprayed his tee shot right of the green and could not get up and down.

"I'm proud of myself. I cannot emphasis how hard I've worked," Villegas said.

A disappointed Garcia added: "I just didn't play well enough today. I just wasn't myself.

"I had a hard time trusting myself although I managed to do it a little bit later in the round."

Villegas, 26, who also won the BMW Championship three weeks ago, is the first player in 11 years to post his first two PGA Tour victories in consecutive starts.

But the defeat was the latest in a growing line of disappointments for Garcia, who was pipped to the USPGA Championship in August by Padraig Harrington, the same player who beat him in a play-off for the Open Championship in 2007.

Garcia, who was hoping to become the first player since 1990 to win the Players Championship and Tour Championship in the same year, also lost a play-off to Vijay Singh at the Barclays Championship five weeks ago.

After starting the day with a three-shot cushion over his nearest rivals, he drove the ball poorly early in the final round, running up three bogeys in 10 holes to surrender the lead.

Garcia fought back with birdies the 12th and 16th and was back in front when Villegas bogeyed the 16th.

But Villegas made amends at the tough par-four 17th, sticking his approach shot to 11 feet and sinking the putt.

They both made pars at the last and when Mickelson and Kim missed their birdie putts, it was down to two.

Villegas found the back of the green at the first extra hole, 45 feet above the hole, from where he hit a nice putt to two feet and holed out.

Garcia, whose second shot came up short in the fringe, subsequently mis-hit his par attempt, coming up well short, and it was all over.

Collated final round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour's THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, East Lake GC, Atlanta, United States of America

(USA unless stated, par 70):

273 Camilo Villegas (Col) 72 66 69 66, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 65 67 71 (Camilo Villegas won at 1st extra hole)

274 Phil Mickelson 68 68 69 69, Anthony Kim 64 69 72 69

278 Ben Curtis 71 69 68 70

280 Jim Furyk 72 70 69 69, Mike Weir (Can) 70 69 71 70, Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 73 70 69

281 KJ Choi (Kor) 69 70 70 72

282 Dudley Hart 73 69 71 69, Justin Leonard 73 69 73 67, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 68 73 71 70, Billy Mayfair 72 71 69 70, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 72 71 70 69

283 Kevin Sutherland 71 71 69 72

284 Robert Allenby (Aus) 75 66 67 76

286 Hunter Mahan 74 75 68 69, Ken Duke 77 69 69 71, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 75 72 71 68, D.J. Trahan 71 72 71 72

287 Carl Pettersson (Swe) 76 72 71 68

289 Vijay Singh (Fij) 73 74 72 70, Chad Campbell 72 73 75 69

290 Steve Stricker 74 74 70 72, Kenny Perry 76 75 67 72, Stewart Cink 75 73 73 69

291 Andres Romero (Arg) 73 68 78 72, Briny Baird 74 71 70 76

292 Tim Clark (Rsa) 78 74 71 69

295 Bubba Watson 71 74 74 76