Harrington's superb putt secures victory in play-off

Padraig Harrington, showing Bernhard Langer-like resilience, followed team success for Europe in the Ryder Cup last week with a personal triumph in the Dunhill Links Championship on the Old Course. The Irishman has a reputation as a perennial runner-up and, one behind Eduardo Romero with one to play, it looked as if he would add to the tally again.

But at the last Harrington holed from 20 feet for a birdie while the man with whom he had disputed the lead all week missed from 10 feet for victory. Both men had scored 69s to finish tied at 19 under. Romero, who won the Scottish Open in July to become the third oldest winner on the European Tour, would have become the oldest at 48 years and 81 days with a victory.

His play-off record on the Tour was won two, lost none, while Harrington's was won none, lost three. After the first extra hole was halved in pars, Romero appeared to nudge ahead when he put his approach to the second to four feet. But Harrington again came up with a superb putt, holing from 12 feet, and Romero missed his for the half. "Eduardo played great and it is a shame there had to be a loser but I've been there before," said Harrington after his first win since the Volvo Masters last November.

"I was pretty confident with how I was hitting the ball and I was trying to stay patient and wait for the chances to come although I was running out of holes. I am obviously on a high at the moment. Next week I'll be exhausted." The first prize of £514,535 took the Irishman into contention for the Order of Merit with Retief Goosen and Ernie Els, who withdrew yesterday morning to attend the birth of his second child.

There was a three-way tie for third place among Vijay Singh, Sandy Lyle, with his best finish for five years, and Colin Montgomerie, who equalled the course record with a 63 despite a bogey at the last when a birdie would have got him into the play-off.

Monty started the day eight strokes off the lead but birdied nine of the first 12 holes, including all six around the turn. At this point anything was possible: breaking the course record, shooting the first 59 on the European Tour, as well as winning the tournament. "When you have just birdied the last six holes, you feel you can birdie every hole, of course you do," Monty said.

But four pars followed before at the 17th he hit a six-iron for his second shot from the right rough, just yards from the hotel wall, to three feet. It was a breathtaking shot but he said: "I was fortunate. I pulled it five yards." Now he needed a birdie three at the last, not an unreasonable proposition, for a 61 and the lowest score ever recorded on the Old Course. But his tee shot finished in a sand-filled divot and he caught his approach a fraction heavy. His ball finished in the Valley of Sin in front of the green but, unlike Costantino Rocca, in the '95 Open, or Paul Lawrie last year, he could not hole out with his third. Not only that, but his putt barely made it on to the front of the green and he missed from 15 feet for his par. Amazingly, for a player who played in many Dunhill Cups, he had never played from the valley previously. "Never," he said. "So I didn't know how slow it is.

"It was getting cold by the 17th tee and eight shots to finish was not going to be bad. Whether it was five, three or, as it was, three, five, you have to take that. I'm not complaining. I have had two very good weeks in my life." The 63 equalled Lawrie's round from last year which is considered the new course record for the Old as the layout was lengthened for the 2000 Open. Ironically, news leaked out yesterday that a further 200 yards and six new tees will be added to "Tiger proof" the course for the 2005 Open. But the 62s of Curtis Strange and Mark O'Meara remain the lowest scores returned at the home of golf.

They did so in the Dunhill Cup, a tournament Monty, infamously, has had his troubles with. "I wasn't playing with a Paraguayan, an Indian or a Chinese player, so I was all right," he said. "I was playing with an Englishman and a Dutchman so I felt comfortable."

DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP (St Andrews): Final scores (GB or Irl unless stated) 269 P Harrington 66 66 68 69; E Romero (Arg) 65 68 67 69. Harrington won play-off at second extra hole. 271 C Montgomerie 70 69 69 63; S Lyle 69 67 67 68; V Singh (Fij) 70 67 64 70 .272 J Randhawa (Ind) 66 69 69 68. 273 B Davis 70 69 69 65; T Bjorn (Den) 67 68 73 65. 274 R Muntz (Neth) 68 74 66 66; A Scott (Aus) 68 70 68 68. 275 M Lundberg (Swe) 67 67 73 68; I Garrido (Sp) 70 66 67 72. Selected: 278 J M Olazabal (Sp) 71 71 69 67. 280 J Rose 70 71 70 69. 281 R Goosen (SA) 70 67 73 71; N Faldo 75 68 66 72; D Clarke 72 72 69 68.