'Winning here is a big boost to my confidence'

SATISFACTION was written all over Pádraig Harrington's face here yesterday as he clutched a cheque for stg£322,474 and held aloft a trophy that meant even more.

Harrington beat Ryder Cup team-mate Thomas Bjorn at the first hole of a play-off for the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Hamburg and answered a few questions of himself into the bargain.

The victory moved him top of the European Order of Merit and, perhaps more importantly, spared him the 20th runners-up finish of his career.

Pádraig had to make a 10-foot putt on the final green to force the shoot-out on 19 under par after Bjorn had closed with a 63, the lowest round of the week.

But then it was the Dane who made the decisive mistake, hitting into sand when they returned to the 18th and failing to get up and down.

A week earlier Harrington had been four clear in the Benson & Hedges International Open and finished second behind Paul Casey.

"I did think about what I would say if I was second again," said Harrington, who finished with a 68.

"Last week had me thinking if I was back to not converting my chances, so to come through is just great. It would have rough not to win either and to win this is a big boost to my confidence.

"Thomas pipped me for Rookie of the Year and normally comes out on top, so maybe I was due and it's nice to get a bit of a monkey off my back with him."

Harrington added: "I never had any doubt that I would win at some stage this season, the changes that I have made to my swing with my coach, Bob Torrance, have allowed me to contend most times that I tee it up.

"Sometimes things outside your control influence tournaments but I've been around long enough to know that sometimes it's just not your week. I'm delighted to have won as it's the only reason that I'm out here, titles are all that I care about. It also makes all the hard work worthwhile. I felt in control all day and holed a couple of crucial putts in the middle of the round which was the difference between this week and last week. I'm off next week as I'm really shattered after the last two weeks but I play four in a row after that."

Bjorn was playing only his second event since taking two months off to be with his new-born twin sons.

"I go home disappointed, but not too disappointed I've come a long way in two weeks," he said. "I'm pleased for Pádraig. It's about time he knocked one off."

Tiger Woods first, third, first and first in the event the last four years finished down in 29th, his equal worst finish in a stroke play event since the 1999 Bay Hill Invitational.

Third was Retief Goosen, who has denied Harrington the Order of Merit title the past two seasons, while Swede Niclas Fasth was fourth and Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Graeme McDowell shared fifth.

Goosen, having pitched in at the second and chipped in at the 12th, was joint leader with four to play, but missed from three feet at the short 16th and failed to birdie the long 17th.

"I played terribly," he said despite a 66. "I only hit four fairways and they were my last four drives. Typically, when I started to play better I couldn't make a putt."

Bjorn went to the turn in 31 and had four more birdies. But he missed a seven-foot chance for another on the last and had to wait to see how costly it proved. The answer was £108,492.

Harrington overcame a three-putt opening bogey to birdie four of the next eight and when he two-putted the long 15th to be on level terms he was the favourite. But a bad drive down the 17th led to only a par and when he pulled his approach to the last 45 feet wide he needed to hole it to win or three-putt to lose.

When his first putt pulled up 10 feet short he had to hole and did. In the play-off he had a four-footer to win and made that too.

Woods, joint 38th at the start of the day, birdied the first two holes, but any thoughts of a charge from nine back ended when his second to the 541-yard third finished under the lip of a bunker.

"That kind of summed it up for the week," he said.

"I played really well and overall I'm very pleased, but I didn't sink anything. They struggled to get the greens in the shape they were the last time I was here (in 2000), but they did the best they could."

Woods refuted any suggestion he had not given the event his all.

He added: "The guys who know me know I give it everything I've got. I just didn't get any momentum going and it had nothing to do with the break I've just had either."

Woods was making his first appearance since a 15th place in his bid for a third successive Masters title. Now, after failing to claim a Deutsche Bank hat-trick, the Memorial Tournament in two weeks' time is his last run-out before his US Open defence.

Now the circuit moves to Wentworth for the Volvo PGA Championship. But Harrington will not be there he has never had a top 10 finish in the event and is skipping it this year.