Australian Brett Rumford chipped in for birdie at the first extra hole to defeat Britain's Phillip Archer in a sudden-death playoff for the European Masters title on Sunday. Both had finished on 16-under-par 268, a stroke ahead of the holder Bradley Dredge.
The playoff pair both bogeyed the par-four 17th hole and both also missed 15-footers for birdies on the last to win outright, Archer setting the target with a closing six-under 65 and Rumford matching him with a 68.
Playing the 18th again as the first shootout hole, Rumford slid home his chip 30ft from the left fringe to claim the 454,000 dollars first prize. Archer's chip from the back fringe just missed.
It was a similar scenario to last week's Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles when a proven winner, Marc Warren, overcame a player seeking a first-time success, fellow-Briton Simon Wakefield. This time Rumford prevailed to end Archer's bid to be the 17th first-time winner on the European Tour this season.
While his chip-in finale settled the outcome, Rumford set up his win over three pivotal holes, the 11th and 12th which he birdied and the 13th, where he holed a 35ft putt to save par. Victory signalled the end of a lean run for Rumford, who had been lying only 106th on the European money-list.
"I've been trying hard, grinding week in week out for not much but at last it's all come together this week." Rumford, who had also had to battle with a neck injury the previous day, upstaged the Europeans trying to make a fast start in the year-long race to make Europe's 2008 Ryder Cup team.
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