Golf: Perks secures shock win

New Zealander Craig Perks, ranked 203rd in the world, pulled off a huge upset and a breathtaking finish to win the Players Championship golf’s unofficial fifth major in Florida.

On a day which saw Nick Faldo crash out of contention with an 80 and then say ‘‘the retirement moves closer’’, Trinidad’s Stephen Ames, himself 144th on the world rankings, looked poised to become the surprise winner of the massive £788,000 first prize.

But then Perks chipped in from 22 feet on the long 16th, holed a 28-foot birdie putt on the 17th and chipped in again from the same distance on the last to win by two.

The victory earned Perks not only more than four times his previous biggest cheque, but also a place in the Masters and a five-year US Tour exemption.

He becomes the first player ever to make the Players Championship his first US Tour success and the first since Hal Sutton in 1983 to win on his debut in the event.

A rollercoaster final round of 72, containing seven bogeys, five birdies and that dramatic eagle, gave him an eight under par total of 280.

‘‘That was the easiest 72 I’ve shot in my life,’’ he joked as the magnitude of his performance began to sank in.

Ames, who almost staged the second biggest last-day comeback in US Tour history from eight back, collected £473,000 for second place thanks to his closing 67.

American Rocco Mediate was third and Spaniard Sergio Garcia was in a tie for fourth. Faldo managed only 49th place in the end and defending champion Tiger Woods 14th.

Tenth at the start of play - and third after 13 holes of his third round - 44-year-old Faldo was understandably bitterly disappointed afterwards.

‘‘I was no good. That sums it up and I don’t want to say too much because I am too negative right now,’’ he commented.

Any hopes Faldo had of mounting a challenge for a first solo win since March 1997 went with a horrendous outward half of 42. He managed to par only the second, third and fifth holes.

Things started to go wrong straightaway when he saw his pitch to the 392-yard first take one hop too many and roll down the steep bank just beyond the flag.

He elected to putt back up, but got the speed horribly wrong and the ball finished 45 feet from the hole - further away than where he was standing with a stunned look on his face.

A five-footer was needed for him to drop only one stroke and then he did well not to bogey the long second as well.

In the rough off the tee, his pitch went long again, down another bank. And, almost inevitably, he left this putt short, but holed from 10 feet for his five.

After another bogey on the 384-yard fourth, four more came in a row from the sixth, the last of them when he pulled his pitch to the 583-yard ninth into sand and failed to get up and down.

He did have three birdies on the back nine, but also another double bogey and three bogeys, the last of them a three-putt on the final green.

Playing partner Garcia still had a chance to win when he missed an eight-foot birdie chance on the 17th, then fired his drive into the right-hand rough on the last.

His nine-iron second flew the green and after getting a free drop away from the grandstand his flop chip to tie ran 12 feet past and he missed that.