Howell extends emotion

How do you measure a victory? Is it by yards, or by years, with stacks of money, or is it something deep inside?

Four years, four months and 12 days without a win isn’t a drought, it’s a career for some players, but that’s how long Charles Howell III was kept waiting. On Sunday at Riviera Country Club, Howell outlasted Phil Mickelson, steered a three-foot par putt into the bottom of the third playoff hole and won the Nissan Open. And then broke down in tears.

Howell’s second PGA Tour victory came 127 tournaments after his first, the 2002 Michelob Championship. It was worth $936,000, but much more than that.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve won anything. I am speechless,” he said. “I’ve always said Riviera is my favorite course other than Augusta National, such a special place. To have won here, I am truly beyond words.”

A runner-up 10 times, twice this year, Howell lost at the Sony Open in Honolulu when he failed to get up and down on the 72nd hole. He had more or less the same situation at the 18th hole in regulation Sunday after driving into the right rough and eventually needing to roll in an eight-foot putt to save par.

He did. And after his final round of 65 and his long-awaited victory, he thanked his family, especially his father, who taught him the game, and his wife, Heather, for being positive for so long.

“They never thought I was crazy,” he said. “They never thought that anything that I was doing wasn’t going to pay off. This game can really beat you up. You see a lot of guys never recover and come back from it.”

For Mickelson, it was a perfectly galling defeat, caused by unexpected bouts of fragility that had been nowhere in evidence when he won last week at Pebble Beach and through the first 12 holes Sunday.

His driver let him down at the worst time, and his short game came up short.

Clinging to a one-shot lead and needing only to make a par at the 18th hole, Mickelson hit a shaky drive into the left rough and a faulty eight-iron short of the green, then left his chip 17 feet short of the hole and missed the putt, resulting in a bogey.

Waiting on the putting green with Mickelson at the 18th tee, Howell thought his time was up.

“That tournament was over,” Howell said. “I gave him a 90% chance of getting up and down.”

But instead of cementing his reputation as one of golf’s premier front-runners, Mickelson was left grasping for explanations of what went wrong. He could not deny the outcome.

“I had the tournament in control. I just needed to par the last hole,” he said. “So I certainly will look back and say that there were a few opportunities that I let slide.

“It happens. It’s part of the game.”

Mickelson lost the tournament on the back nine, where he experienced two disastrous putting miscues that tarnished his closing round of 68. At the 13th, he missed a four-foot putt and bogeyed, and then missed a crucial four-footer that would have meant birdie at the 16th.

On the 13th: “I don’t know why that didn’t go in.”

On the 16th: “It just didn’t go in.”

Howell began the day three shots behind Mickelson. While the other contenders began falling by the wayside, Howell jumped into contention when he rolled in a pair of critical putts on the par-three holes at the 14th and 16th. He said he was helped out by watching Robert Allenby and Jim Furyk, who had putts from almost the same line.

Howell’s 33-foot birdie putt at the 16th fell straight into the hole, and he was suddenly only one shot behind Mickelson.

One hole ahead of Mickelson, Howell heard the roar when Mickelson missed his own birdie putt at the 16th.

“My heart jumped,” Howell said.

As it turned out, the tournament became a two-player race. Ernie Els shot a 67 to tie for third with Furyk, who also had a 67, and Allenby, who had a 68. They were three shots out of the playoff. Padraig Harrington faded with a 73 and wound up seventh, one shot behind Sergio Garcia.

The three-hole playoff matched the tournament’s longest in 25 years, since Tom Watson defeated Johnny Miller.

The 18th was the first playoff hole, and Mickelson again yanked his drive into the left rough but saved par when he putted from 58 feet at the right fringe and got the ball inches from the hole.

Howell’s path was more rugged. He had to chip out of the kikuyu to a downhill pin and managed to sink a six-footer to save par.

Both players made par at the second playoff hole, the tricky, 315-yard, par-four 10th, although it was far from routine. Howell had to chip off a cart path and between two trees, then again from the rough, before making a three-footer. Mickelson had left his second shot 20 feet short of the hole and two-putted from there, his second putt covering only three feet.

It was on to the 14th. Mickelson’s seven-iron was just short of the green, as was Howell’s.

Mickelson decided to putt and left it 10 feet short while Howell chipped three feet past the hole. Soon, it was over, but not before Mickelson’s putt slipped past on the right.

Howell knew it was all in his hands. Golf had brought him more than $14 million in earnings, but it hadn’t solved everything. The 27-year-old career runner-up, or Charles Howell the 2nd, had a chance to change everything, once and for all.

He couldn’t describe what he was thinking.

“I wasn’t even there,” he said. “I said a prayer before I hit the putt and said, ‘It’s time, just go in.’

“To win here, I’m the luckiest guy in the world right now.”

thomas.bonk@latimes.com