Sergio Garcia birdied the first extra hole of a sudden-death play-off to defeat home favourite Retief Goosen in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City.
For the second time in three years Garcia triumphed over a South African having similarly beaten Ernie Els during a play-off in 2001. This time around Goosen came off second best to the Spaniard as Garcia rolled in a 20 foot birdie putt for the title after the pair had tied on 14 under par 274 after the 72 holes of regulation play.
It was Garcia’’s first title of the season, the hard work he has put in on his swing changes over the past 12 months finally paying dividends with a victory that earned him $1.2 million.
Garcia started the final round with a slender one stroke lead over Goosen and got off to the worst possible start with a bogey on the first hole after a shank. However four birdies and just the one bogey over his next nine holes and a series of pars over his last eight holes kept him in the hunt.
Goosen was one stroke clear playing the 14th having picked up four birdies himself without a dropped shot but crucially bogeyed the par five to fall back into a tie for the lead. Both players parred the next four holes to take the contest into extra holes.
Fiji’’s Vijay Singh finished third at 11 under after a final round 69, while Northern Ireland’’s Darren Clarke can take plenty of encouragement from the week after finishing fourth at ten under par after a 67, the low round of the day.
