KAPALUA, Maui — These guys are good. Even if these guys didn't include Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, the top two golfers in the world.

Tiger and Phil were no-shows in the winners-only Mercedes-Benz Championship but the 31 who showed up put on, well, quite a show. Pun intended.

It came down to a Sunday shoot-out predicted 24 hours earlier by Daniel Chopra, who went four extra holes in the longest playoff in Mercedes history to beat Steve Stricker after both finished at 18-under-par 274 in regulation.

"It was no Tiger Woods and Ernie Els playoff, I can tell you that," said Stricker referring to the duel in 2000 when they both eagled the first playoff hole before Woods finally won on the second extra hole by rolling in a 40-foot birdie putt.

"We were kind of throwing jabs, feeling each other out and kind of seeing who was going to make the first mistake," said Stricker, who birdied the 18th hole to shoot a final-round 9-under 64 and force a playoff.

It was that kind of shot-making by those in the relatively "whodaguy" field this year that led Chopra, a native of Sweden who became the seventh consecutive foreign-born Mercedes champion, to wonder what the heck was going on.

"(It's) definitely by far the best final round I've ever played to win a tournament. Seven birdies, no bogeys," Chopra said.

He thought he had it won several times. And, yet, every time he looked up, there was Stricker right in back of him.

"I'm 7-under for the day and (Stricker's) right there behind me. Then he birdies 18 and all of a sudden now I've got to birdie 18 just to win. That just goes to show how good everybody out here is."

If Chopra's an unknown, he's quickly making a name for himself. Perhaps as the heir-apparent King of Kapalua, a title now held by Stuart Appleby, who won the Mercedes three straight years (2004-2006).

"This course is right up my alley. The golf course was designed by me, I'm guessing. There's not a golf course out there that suits me more. I just loved it from the moment I saw it," said Chopra, 34, who played the par-73 Plantation Course for the first time after winning his first PGA Tour event in October to earn his way here.

And, for change, somebody wearing all white won.

"I wore all black (Saturday) so I thought I'd balance it out, yin and yang," said Chopra, who grew up in India, lived in England, claims to be the first to hit a golf ball off the Great Wall of China and can think in three languages.

He did a lot of thinking out here this week, and likes the conclusions he reached.

He loves the wide-open Plantation Course, which affords him the opportunity to be creative in his shot-making on almost every hole.

"It's wide off the tees, gives me plenty of room," said Chopra, adding that the huge greens with all sorts of slopes benefit a good putter. "And I'm a good putter. I was able to use my imagination to read putts."

And what's not to like about the guy?

With his white-blond hair, he looks like punk rock star Billy Idol.

"I get that a bit from people," says Chopra, who now heads to the Waialae Country Club for the Sony Open in Hawai'i, hoping to pull off back-to-back wins as Ernie Els did in 2003.