GOLF: South Africa's Trevor Immelman used all his local knowledge to claim his first European Tour title with a thrilling play-off victory over compatriot Tim Clark in the South African Airways Open.
Immelman conjured up a superb birdie on the final hole of regulation and repeated the trick on the first hole in sudden death after an approach to within inches of the pin to claim the €121,669 first prize.
Gary Murphy finished best of the five Irish players to qualify for the final two rounds. Murphy shot a final round of 69 for a 10 under par total of 278 and a cheque for €14,900. Graeme McDowell moved to four under par with a closing 71 while Peter Lawrie, second at the half-way mark, slipped back to two under par 286, the damage being done in a third round 77.
Padraig Dooley finished on 294 after a final round of 76, while Limerick's Tim Rice was a shot further back of 295 after a 77.
Immelman, who carded a closing 67 for a 14 under total of 274 - was a member for five years at the tournament venue of Erinvale, in the Cape Town suburb of Somerset-West where he was born, and said: "It's a dream come true for me.
"I can't tell you how many times I've walked down these fairways dreaming about a chance to do this. There are no words to describe this."
Immelman, who finished second three times last year, added: "For it to happen here at home, in front of people I have known for ever, makes all those second places worthwhile."
Clark had carded a flawless last round 69 but was left to rue not the birdie chances on the 18th in regulation and the play-off, but a disastrous quadruple-bogey nine on the 16th on Saturday.
The 27-year-old duffed four consecutive chips, the last of them a complete air shot, during his third round when he was 14 under and two shots clear of the field.
"That was it right there," Clark admitted. "It was four shots, even five, wasted on one hole."
South African quintet Hugo, Bobby Lincoln, Bradford Vaughan, Charl Schwartzel and Tjaart van der Walt shared third place three shots behind with England's Justin Rose and Brian Davis, Murphy, Welshman Stephen Dodd and Scot Andrew Coltart among those a shot back.
Rose began the day three off the lead but saw his chances disappear with a triple bogey seven on the fourth where he found water twice. "I had more birdies than I had all week but it was a weird day," the 22-year-old said after a closing 71. "I made a triple bogey on the fourth and obviously that made it hard to win from there but I kept my head up all day and tried to keep battling."
"The water is right on the edge of the fairway, I didn't hit that bad a tee shot, but then on my two-iron third shot I got put off a little by one of the people in their house right on the fairway. It was just one of those things and I got a little bit distracted."
