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Harrington claims win
at last
Padraig Harrington ended
a 13-month wait for a fourth career title when he won the season-ending Volvo
Masters by one shot at Montecastillo Golf Club.
The Irishman, who had posted
seven second-place finishes during 2001, reeled off birdies at three of the last
four holes, including a putt from 25 feet at the last, to close with a six-under-par
66.
That left him at 12-under
204, and one ahead of his Irish World Cup team mate Paul McGinley, after the third
and final round of a wind-battered tournament.
His triumph also lifted
him above Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke into second place on the 2001 European
order of merit, behind overall winner Retief Goosen.
Harrington managed to pip
Goosen, though, in the race for best European Tour stroke average over the course
of the season.
"The Volvo Masters
is by far the biggest tournament I've won in my career," the Irishman said.
"And it's a little
more special today given that I have had seven runner-up spots during the year
-- that makes it extra special.
"It's nice to finish
first and I certainly feel different today."
Harrington said he had dreamed
as a child of winning a tournament after making a long putt on the final green.
"Holing a putt on the
last is every kid's dream and I don't think I've done that before. But everything
has come right for me today and the way that ball went in on 18, I knew my name
was on the trophy.
"I three-putted the
second and third holes today and I had to come back from that. But it can help
with your focus and today I had a bad start and won, whereas sometimes I've had
good starts and then lost."
McGinley, the overnight
leader, picked up an eagle and a birdie over his last seven holes to return a
70 while Australian Adam Scott was a further shot back in third after a nine-birdie
65.
"What can I say?"
McGinley asked afterwards. "Obviously it's Padraig's day. He doesn't back
off and he's been unlucky not to win this season.
"I rallied well after
a very bad start (three bogeys on his front nine). I let everyone back into the
tournament but I regrouped well."
Clarke, the 1998 champion,
threw away his own chance of victory when he bogeyed the par-five 16th after finding
water with his second-shot approach.
He had been two ahead of
the field with nine to play after a four-birdie 32 but, after his solitary drop
of the day on 16, he could only par his last two holes to finish with a 69.
Clarke, having surrendered
his second position on the European money list, had to settle for a three-way
tie for fourth spot on 207, along with the Swedish pair of Mathias Gronberg and
Robert Karlsson.
THREE ROUNDS
After strong winds at Montecastillo
Golf Club on Saturday forced officials to reduce the event to just three rounds,
instead of the scheduled four, the last day produced some hotly-contested golf.
At one point, four players
were tied for the lead at 10-under overall, with Scott the leader in the clubhouse
and the final three-ball of Clarke, Gronberg and McGinley left with just three
to play.
Clarke, though, immediately
slipped back with his error at the 517-yard 16th and, although McGinley made birdie
there to go to 11 under, he was never able to catch Harrington over the last two
holes.
Harrington, three off the
lead overnight, fell back further when he bogeyed the par-three second.
But, following his first
birdie of the day at the fifth, he launched an impressive charge with three successive
birdies round the turn.
Out in 34, he offset another
birdie on 12 with a bogey at 13 before his three-birdie burst over the last four
holes edged him through to the title, his first since he won last year's Turespana
Masters in Madrid.
South Africa's U.S. Open
champion Goosen, one of the pre-tournament favourites, surged up the leaderboard
on the last day with a blemish-free 66.
Goosen, who clinched this
season's European order of merit title with his playoff victory in the Madrid
Open, collected four birdies and an eagle-three at the 517-yard 16th to finish
joint-10th on seven-under 209
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