Golf/PGA Grand Slam:British Open champion Padraig Harrington, five clear at one point, lost to US Open champion Angel Cabrera at the third hole of a sudden-death play-off in the four-man, 36-hole PGA Grand Slam at Mid-Ocean in Bermuda yesterday.
Harrington was one in front with only the par-five 18th to come in the second round. He birdied it, but Cabrera made eagle and so they tied on the four-under mark of 136.
The same hole was then parred by both men, as was the short 17th. But on returning to the long 18th for the third time in the day, Cabrera won the €400,000 first prize with a birdie four.
Jim Furyk, deputising for US PGA champion Tiger Woods, was third and Masters winner Zach Johnson fourth.
Harrington held the five-stroke lead when he resumed with a birdie three against Cabrera's triple-bogey seven.
But the Dubliner saw that disappear when he double-bogeyed the ninth, and Cabrera's birdie-eagle finish gave him a second successive 68 to Harrington's 69.
Cabrera then bogeyed the 12th and 16th, but birdied the short 17th to pull back to one behind with Harrington having bogeyed the 13th and birdied the next.
Furyk was only two behind thanks to an outward 32, but he then crashed to a triple-bogey eight on the 11th, allowing Johnson to go into third place one one over.
Harrington was the first European to qualify for the event since Paul Lawrie and Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999, but Ian Woosnam remains the last European winner.
That was in 1991 when he defeated John Daly, Ian Baker-Finch and Payne Stewart.
Meanwhile, on the main US Tour, the Fry's Electronics Open will start today at Grayhawk Golf Club's Raptor Course in Scottsdale, Arizona.
It will feature a full-field (132 players), with a $5 million (€3.5 million) purse and $900,000 (€634,000) going to the winner.
Arizona State graduate Phil Mickelson will be the crowd favourite this week.
The field is headlined by eight of the top 30 money winners, and nine of the top 50 in the world ranking, including Stewart Cink (23), Arron Oberholser (25th) and Tim Clark (30th).
