KEY POINTS:
JAPAN - Padraig Harrington beat Tiger Woods to win the Dunlop Phoenix tournament after an astonishing birdie on the second playoff hole.
The Irishman, the 2006 European Order of Merit winner, courageously blasted his second shot through a perilously narrow gap in a Y-shaped tree after hooking his
tee shot left.
His ball caught the base of the gap and ricocheted upwards, advancing 120 yards.
Harrington then produced a superb pitch to within two feet to set up an easy birdie.
Woods, who was going for a third straight title here, missed a 12-foot birdie putt and Harrington completed a simple tap-in to win.
Woods' play-off record is now 14-2 in official events worldwide.
"When you come up against Tiger you've got to take whatever opportunities are presented," Harrington said of his risky through-the-tree effort.
"I saw it as a great chance of hitting a spectacular shot to win and it came off. I got lucky but sometimes fortune favours the brave."
Woods began the final round tied with Harrington for the lead but looked to be cruising to his 10th victory of the year after three early birdies.
However, the momentum shifted suddenly when Harrington holed a long birdie putt on the par-four 16th and then Woods amazingly missed a three-foot par putt to leave them level.
Both men parred the 17th and sank short birdie putts on the 18th to card rounds of three-under-par 67 and finish at nine-under 271.
After matching birdies on the last at the first play-off hole, the players returned to the 18th where Harrington went for broke after a poor tee shot to triumph against the odds.
Woods had only lost five times when going into the final round of a tournament in the lead or sharing the lead.
But Harrington was unaffected.
"The great thing about stats is that they've got to fall sometimes," Harrington said after claiming his second win of the year and avoiding a 31st career runners-up finish.
"Sooner or later a stat like that is going to break so just be the one to break it."
Woods rued his costly missed putt on 16.
"I had my opportunities," he said.
"I had a two-shot lead with three to go and missed a short one at 16. If I made that putt it forced Paddy [Harrington] to have to birdie on one of the last two holes to get into a play-off. It was a poor putt. It probably cost me the event."
Britain's Justin Rose shot a fine 66 to finish tied for fourth on six under with Ian Poulter two further back in equal sixth after a 65.
l Jose Manuel Lara secured his first victory on the European Tour at the UBS Hong Kong Open yesterday.
The Spaniard, who has four second-place finishes, edged the Filipino rookie Juvic Pagunsan by one shot.
- INDEPENDENT
