Harrington second as Jimenez foils title defence

PADRAIG HARRINGTON was left with yet another runners-up finish to his name yesterday as Ryder Cup team-mate Miguel Angel Jimenez pipped him to the Omega Hong Kong Open title.

The 40-year-old Spaniard's fifth victory of 2004 forced defending champion Harrington to settle for the 25th second place of his career on a day which also saw Nick Faldo fail in his bid to end nearly eight years without a victory.

Only a stroke off the lead with 18 holes to play, Faldo finished joint sixth. While both he and Harrington came off the 18th green disappointed, it was South African James Kingston who had cause to be the most dejected.

Level with Jimenez with two to play, Kingston, seeking his first European Tour title, rolled home a 35-foot birdie putt on the 17th.

But Jimenez followed him in from 25 feet to get back on terms and then Kingston hooked his final drive against a fence. He was forced to take a penalty drop and did well to rescue a bogey five, but the Malaga golfer was only eight feet from the flag in two and had two putts for the trophy.

A closing 66, which matched the lowest score of the day, gave Jimenez the £70,303 first prize with a 14-under-par total of 266, three shots better than Harrington's aggregate last year.

Harrington was four behind with only five holes to play but birdied the 14th and 15th and after missing from eight feet at the next, hit his approach to four feet on the 406-yard 17th.

There seemed every chance he would make it a three-way tie walking to the final tee, but his two playing partners thwarted him and, as it was, the Dubliner had to make a 30-foot putt on the last just to have a chance of a play-off. He left it short.

Harrington said afterwards that what happened earlier cost him his first successful defence of any title and gave him his fifth runners-up finish this year. "I missed six to eight putts and putted badly all day. The 17th was irrelevant," he said.

"I won from one behind with two to play last year and it was not looking too bad again. But that's the way it goes and I needed to finish second here to stay sixth in the world."

Both he and Jimenez now fly to California for the Target World Challenge hosted by Tiger Woods. Jimenez said: "Five wins this year is amazing you don't think you are going to win that much. And with Vijay Singh having nine wins (at age 41) it proves that golf is not just for young people."

Faldo's next appearance will be at the Heineken Classic in Melbourne in February, when he will have a new caddie.

Long-time bag-carrier Fanny Sunesson has decided to pursue other interests, although she says she will still make the occasional appearance.

"I needed more trust in my swing," said the 47-year-old following his 71. "There was not enough I was second-guessing myself and I was wrong.

"I made only one putt and it was not good enough, that's the bottom line. There was no margin for error and if it didn't come off, I was stuffed. But there was lots of good stuff and I'll work on the good bits."

Meanwhile, at the US tour qualifying school in California, Britain's Brian Davis, Greg Owen and Phillip Price all moved up a place in the fourth round.

Davis is now joint second, only a stroke behind American Jeff Brehaut, after a 69 took him onto 15 under par as the six-round marathon continued. Ireland's Richie Coughlan and Keith Nolan are 119th and 168th respectively.

At the Nedbank Golf challenge in Sun City, Lee Westwood's bid for a £650,000 pay day came undone as he carded a disastrous 80 to hand Retief Goosen the title.

The Worksop-based Ryder Cup hero returned to the dark days of his fabled two-year slump, which he emerged from in 2003, with a round which included a ruinous triple-bogey at the eighth hole and a double at the 18th.

He had been primed to push Goosen all the way to the title and the considerable winners' cheque, despite losing his one-stroke overnight lead in the first seven holes of the day.

Goosen made three early birdies to nudge one shot in front of Westwood, who after six straight pars picked up a shot himself on the seventh hole to go to six-under. But then came the dramatic slump which allowed the South African to eventually coast to a six-shot victory.