EUROPEAN TOUR NEWS: FRANCE'S GREGORY Bourdy denied David Howell what would have been an amazing victory last night, winning the Portuguese Open at the third hole of a play-off at Oitavos Dunes, Cascais.

The Ryder Cup star, so down in the dumps about his game just two weeks ago that he changed coaches, produced a closing 64 that was his lowest round for over two years, but found it was not quite enough.

Scot Alastair Forsyth, seeking a second win in three weeks, had also tied on the 18-under-par mark of 266 after two closing birdies, but fell out of the race after driving into a bush on the second hole of sudden death.

Howell and Bourdy, who stayed alive with a 12-foot putt there, then switched from the 18th to the 17th and the Swindon golfer missed the green and failed to get up and down.

Bourdy had led by four at the start of the day but a front nine of 39 left him playing catch-up.

Howell, a member of the world's top 10 after wins over Tiger Woods in Shanghai and then in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, had crashed to 247th in the rankings entering the event.

Bourdy, the second successive French winner after Thomas Levet's success in Spain last Sunday, had been four clear overnight and that became five when Forsyth bogeyed the first.

Yet by the seventh tee the Bordeaux golfer had not just let that advantage go, he was two behind.

While he bogeyed the second, third and sixth Tunnicliff birdied them all and added another on the next.

South African Charl Schwartzel and Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano had a taste of sharing the lead as well, but then attention turned to Howell, Bourdy and ultimately Forsyth.

Howell, outscoring his 18-year-old playing partner Rory McIlroy by seven, birdied the 16th and 17th to be ahead on his own for the first time.

Howell was in danger of messing up the last hole too when he pulled his approach and it headed for an area of scrub. However, a thin spectator pole got in the way, it rebounded into a much better lie and with a chip to 18 inches he saved par to set the target.

Bourdy, after a front nine of 39 that matched the worst of the day, came home in 31, drawing level with a fourth birdie in seven holes at the long 16th.

Forsyth looked set for a near miss with two to play but followed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 17th with a 25-footer at the last which curled round the back of the cup, hesitated and then was pulled down by gravity.

At the first extra hole they all parred, Forsyth missing a chance to win from 25 feet from the same line as 15 minutes earlier.

Forsyth, whose two previous Tour wins had come in play-offs, then fell out of it after hitting his drive into a bush on their third playing of the 18th and being unable to save par.

The extra significance of that was that it keeps Colin Montgomerie as Scotland's top player in the world rankings. It is a position he has held since 1991, but for how much longer remains to be seen.

Howell's 2006 Ryder Cup team-mates Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke, neither of whom has qualified for this coming week's Masters either, also look on the way back.

McGinley followed his third-place finish in Korea by coming seventh on 13 under and Clarke's closing 68 lifted him to 24th.

Damien McGrane, however, was Ireland's best finisher on 15-under-par 269 after a brilliant final round of 66.

Out in 34 where he mixed four birdies with two bogeys, McGrane birdied three in a row from the 13th in a back nine of 31.

McIlroy, who started the day in fifth place slipped down to 15th after a level-par round of 71.