Sudden death champion Allenby strikes again

When Australian Robert Allenby describes his record in play-offs as “pretty good” he is being very modest.

The 38-year-old made it an amazing 11 sudden-death wins out of 12 when he beat defending champion Henrik Stenson at the third extra hole of the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa yesterday.

Allenby, who won his first 10 and suffered his only defeat to Justin Leonard on the US Tour last year, was a relieved man after bogeying the last hole to slip back alongside Stenson on 11 under par.

Stenson had earlier three-putted it and by pushing his approach up against the grandstand and failing to get up and down after both had parred the 18th twice the Swede suffered his second runner-up finish in a row.

The previous week he missed out by a shot with Robert Karlsson at the World Cup in China.

“I’m glad that’s over,” said Allenby, who was without a victory since his 2005 hat-trick of Australian Open, PGA and Masters titles.

“After bogeying the 72nd I knew I had a second chance. I did think we were going to be here all night at one stage, but once I saw Henrik hit it out right I knew he had a difficult shot.

“The only thing in my mind then was hitting my six-iron straight at the pin and I hit it absolutely perfectly.”

He struck it to seven feet and safely two-putted from there for a win worth over £720,000. Stenson earned half that.

England’s Ross Fisher and South African Tim Clark were only a stroke back in joint third, while Retief Goosen, leader by two with a round to go, crashed to fifth with a 75.