Harrington takes Dunhill

A WEEK after an inspiring role in Europe's Ryder Cup victory over the US, Ireland's Padraig Harrington kept his nerve again to claim the biggest cheque of his golfing career yesterday.

In a thrilling climax to the Dunhill links championship at St Andrews the Dubliner, having repeatedly stared the 18th runners-up finish of his career in the face, beat Argentina's Eduardo Romero at the second hole of a sudden death play-off.

It earned Harrington £514,535 (€822,000) and stopped 48-year-old Romero becoming the oldest winner in European tour history.

One behind playing the last, Harrington pitched to 20 feet and Romero to 10, but he was the one to hole for birdie and that meant they tied on the 19-under-par mark of 269.

At the first extra hole Romero had another chance, but missed from just under 20 feet and then on the next he holed from 10 feet and the South American, winner of the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond in July, failed from less than five.

''Obviously I'm on a high at the moment, but with this and the Ryder Cup I'm going to be exhausted next week,'' said Harrington, who had lost his three previous play-offs.

There was double cause for celebration because he also won the team part of the celebrity pro-am with racehorse owner JP McManus.

''I was very confident all day because I was hitting the ball well, but I had to stay patient and wait for the chances. The holes were running out, though.''

Joint third were Colin Montgomerie - after a course record-

equalling 63 - Fiji's Vijay Singh and also Sandy Lyle, for whom it represented his best finish since he lost a play-off to Ian Woosnam in Korea five years.

A cheque of nearly £160,000 was also the biggest of Lyle's 25-year European tour career and it ended the worry of losing his exemption this season and having to rely mostly on sponsors' invitations next year.

Despite his brilliant score Montgomerie would have been in the play-off if he had birdied the 357-yard last rather than bogeyed it.

His drive finished in a sand-filled divot hole and his pitch from there failed to make it to the green and ended up in the Valley of Sin.

It was a place that, surprisingly, he had never putted from in all his years of coming to the Old Course and he left his birdie attempt 15 feet short and missed.

That left the stage to Romero and Harrington, who had topped the leaderboard from the moment the former opened with a 65 at Carnoustie on Thursday and Harrington with a 66 there.

Level with a round to play, Romero sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the first, but had a bogey on the next to Harrington's birdie.

Romero was then two clear after further birdies at the seventh, 11th and 12th before the pendulum swung once more. Harrington birdied the 13th and Romero bogeyed the next.

The Dubliner's bogey at the 456-yard 15th, however, gave the South American the advantage again. But his miss on the last meant they both had to work overtime before the issue - and the huge sums of money - was settled.

Harrington, whose last win was the Volvo Masters last November, is now right back in the hunt for the Order of Merit title with a month to go. It looks a fight between him and South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen - and Els is the outsider of the three after withdrawing yesterday to be present at the birth of his second child.

When Montgomerie stood nine under for the day on the 12th green he thought he might not only win the title, but also shoot the first sub-60 round in European tour history just a week after being the top points-scorer in Europe's Ryder Cup win.

''I'd just had six birdies in a row and you feel you could birdie every hole. But what I was really thinking about was that I was 17 under and I wanted to get to 20 under.

''I failed in that task, but I did OK. Even when I was on the 17th tee I would have taken a four-four finish. As it happened it was three-five. I was fortunate on the 17th. I pushed my drive and pulled my second.''

Narrowly avoiding the cavernous Road Hole bunker his six-iron ran up to two feet and that left him needing one more birdie for the first 61 at the 'Home of Golf.'

Paul Lawrie's 63 en route to winning the title last year is the current course record, but before the lengthening of some holes Curtis Strange fired a 62 playing for America in the 1987 Alfred Dunhill Cup and later matched by Mark O'Meara.

Montgomerie now believes that all things are possible again in his career.

''People say that my major opportunity has gone and in down times you tend to believe them,'' he commented. ''Majors are more difficult now because Tiger has entered them, but in the last few years there are players who have won one that I feel I am as good as.

''It wouldn't change my life, but it might change the questions I get asked!''

For the record, Montgomerie opened with birdie putts of two and 12 feet, two-putted the long fifth and then from the seventh to the 12th found the target from 12, 15, 15, 12, four and 12 feet.

Ireland has been seeded third for the World Cup of Golf in Mexico in December after the US and Fiji. Padraig Harrington, the ninth ranked player in the world, earns the third seed for Ireland. The four time European Tour winner will once again be paired with his good friend, Paul McGinley. This will be the sixth consecutive year that these two have played together, posting a victory in 1997.