Hamburg, May 19: Padraig Harrington of Ireland beat Dane Thomas Bjorn at the first play-off hole to win the Tour Players' Championship of Europe in Hamburg, Germany on Sunday (May 18). Both players finished a stroke ahead of the field on 19-under-par 269, Bjorn with a best-of-the-week nine-under-par 63 and Harrington a 68, but the Irishman's par at the first extra hole earned him the 517,000-USD first prize at the Gut Kaden course. After finishing runner-up last week for the 19th time in his career, Harrington claimed his second win of the season to overtake world number two Ernie Els on top of Europe's rankings. South African Retief Goosen, who pipped Harrington to the European number one spot last season, pitched in twice on the way to a final-round 66 and third place, but it proved another ordinary day for defending champion Tiger Woods of the United States. The world number one was looking for his third successive win in the event and fourth in five years, but a 68 left the American trailing nine shots behind the top two in a tie for 29th place, his worst finish since a tied 29th in the 2001 U.S. PGA Championship. Despite his low finish, Woods still earned 2.5 million USD just for playing in the event.


It was Woods' first tournament since the U.S. Masters and he will have only one more event, the Memorial, before defending his U.S. Open title next month at Olympia Fields, Illinois.


Harrington, 31, who won the Asian Open title last year at the start of the European season, is now almost certain to also move up from his current ninth place in the world rankings.


But the 31-year-old Dubliner, who had led the first three rounds at Gut Kaden, nearly let yet another tournament slip through his grasp.


He had to hole a 4-metre par putt on the 18th to take Denmark's Bjorn, who missed a 3-metre putt for birdie on the last which would have proved the winning putt, into a play-off.


However, two solid putts at the first extra hole proved too good for Bjorn, who found the greenside bunker and could not get up and down for par.


Swedish Ryder Cup player Niclas Fasth took fourth place after a 66, two shots away from the play-off, with three Britons, last week's Benson and Hedges International Open winner Paul Casey (67), Justin Rose (65) and Graeme McDowell (69), a further stroke back.


Leading scores after the final round (Britain unless stated): 269 Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 65 66 70 68, Thomas Bjorn(Denmark) 71 70 65 63 (Harrington won play-off at first extra hole) 270 Retief Goosen (South Africa) 65 69 70 66 271 Niclas Fasth (Sweden) 68 69 68 66 272 Justin Rose 72 68 67 65, Paul Casey 70 66 69 67, Graeme McDowell 70 65 68 69 273 Greg Owen 70 69 67 67, Darren Clarke 67 69 69 68, Paul Lawrie 70 66 69 68 274 Thomas Levet (France) 71 67 68 68 275 David Park 71 70 70 64, Marc Farry (France) 70 70 69 66, Peter Lawrie (Ireland) 67 69 71 68, Nick Faldo 70 67 70 68 276 Alastair Forsyth 70 67 72 67, Gregory Havret (France) 70 70 68 68, Andrew Coltart 68 67 70 71, Anthony Wall 71 70 64 71 277 Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark) 71 68 71 67, Nicolas Colsaerts (Belgium) 70 70 69 68, John Bickerton 72 69 68 68, Peter Baker 67 69 71 70, Miles Tunnicliff 69 68 70 70, David Carter 69 70 68 70, Robert-Jan Derksen (Netherlands) 70 69 68 70, Stephen Gallacher 71 67 68 71, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Denmark) 71 67 66 73


Bureau Report