Tenerife, Apr 28: Britain's Kenneth Ferrie birdied the second playoff hole to beat Swede Peter Hedblom and Ireland's Peter Lawrie in a playoff for the Canaries Spanish Open title. It was a maiden European Tour win for Ferrie in Tenerife on Sunday (April 27) in his third year. His previous best finish was tied third in last year's French Open. Ferrie had finished Sunday on 22-under-par 266, a stroke ahead of the field, closing with a three-under-par 69. Hedblom had a 67 and Lawrie a 66. It proved a disappointing day for Pablo Martin, seeking to break the European Tour's age record. His hopes of being the youngest winner and the first amateur to beat the pros in an official European event for 42 years were dashed as early as the fourth where he hit into a hazard and then three-putted to run up a triple-bogey. He finished five strokes away from the top trio in a tie for 23rd place. This week he is back at school in Malaga, sitting examinations.


Defending champion Sergio Garcia's final round 68 left him four strokes off the playoff.


Lawrie shot a 66 on Sunday. Hedblom's 67 include a birdie at the last.



Ferrie, 24, could have clinched victory without needing to go to sudden-death. Having birdied the 15th, 16th and 17th holes he hit a wild tee shot on the par-five 18th close to a shrub and could not make the green, chipped 60ft past the flag and needed a three-footer for par to make it into the three-way tie.


However, after all three birdied the 18th again in the first playoff hole, the burly Englishman finished the job when he was the only one of the trio to reach the 18th green at the second time of asking. He took two putts from 10ft for the 300,000 dollar first prize. Former British boys amateur champion Ferrie cited the success of players such as Sergio Garcia for making him determined to win. Britain's Brian Davis followed his two second places in his last two events with a shared fourth place, a stroke away from extra holes, with Dane Mads Vibe-Hastrup.


Leading final round scores from the 1.75 million euros Canaries Spanish Open at the par-72 Golf Costa Adeje course on Sunday (Britain unless stated, a-denotes amateur): 266 Peter Lawrie (Ireland) 67 64 69 66, Peter Hedblom (Sweden) 64 70 65 67, Kenneth Ferrie 67 65 65 69 (Ferrie won play-off at second extra hole) 267 Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Denmark) 69 68 65 65, Brian Davis 66 67 65 69 268 Gary Evans 67 69 67 65, Charl Schwartzel (South Africa) 63 70 67 68, Paul Casey 64 65 68 71, Santiago Luna (Spain) 67 64 66 71 269 Phillip Price 66 68 69 66, Markus Brier (Austria) 68 68 67 66, Richard Green (Australia) 67 66 68 68, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain) 64 67 69 69, Anthony Wall 68 68 65 68, Paul McGinley (Ireland) 66 66 67 70, Marten Olander (Sweden) 63 69 67 70, Peter Fowler (Australia) 69 65 65 70, Simon Khan 66 65 66 72 270 Ricardo Gonzalez (Argentina) 68 70 65 67, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 69 67 66 68, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 66 67 67 70, Soren Hansen (Denmark) 64 68 65 73 271 Jamie Spence 69 69 68 65, Julien Van Hauwe (France) 65 69 69 68, Raymond Russell 67 67 67 70, a-Pablo Martin (Spain) 67 66 64 74 272 Carlos Quevedo (Spain) 69 65 71 67, Jarmo Sandelin (Sweden) 64 70 70 68, Ivo Giner (Spain) 66 69 67 70, Shaun Webster 64 70 67 71, Mikko Ilonen (Finland) 67 65 68 72


Bureau Report