DAVIS LOVE, with a tap in birdie on the second play-off hole, beat Phil Mickelson to win the US championship leg of the World Championship of golf on Tuesday.

Love's victory makes him the second regional champion after Hajime Meshiai of Japan to qualify for the matchplay tournament at the world finals in January, 1998 in Scottsdale Arizona.

In a see saw battle, neither player had more than a one-hole lead throughout the match.

On the first play-off hole, the 457 yard 16th, Love and Mickelson made lengthy par putts after aggressive first putts at birdie rolled by the hole. At the 17th Love staked a seven iron to two feet to claim the title.

"The match wasn't pretty, but it was nice to end with a good shot," said Love, who won $200,000 for his victor to add to the $70,000 he won bye beating Lehman 3 and 2 earlier in the day, and the $20,000 for defeating Corey Pavin 5 and 3 on Monday.

. The Kmart discount department store chain has dropped its sponsorship of PGA Tour veteran Fuzzy Zoeller, saying it was concerned over racial jokes Zoeller made about Masters champion Tiger Woods.

Zoeller has apologised for comments in which he advised the 21-year-old, whose father is black and mother is Asian, "not to serve fried chicken next year ... or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.

One of the many Masters traditions calls for the defending champion to select the menu for the following year's Champions Dinner.

Under the circumstances, we have mutually agreed with Fuzzy Zoeller to immediately end our relationship, Kmart said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

In a statement issued by his agent on Monday, Zoeller said: My comments were not intended to be racially derogatory and I apologise for the fact that they were misconstrued in that fashion."