Hansen refuses to buckle

PGA Championship:If, somewhat thankfully, the doomsayer's predictions of weather conditions of the type that forced Noah into making the ark failed to materialise yesterday, you could at least understand how the forecasters got it so wrong. This was a thoroughly capricious day in the stockbroker belt, but especially so on the golf course where so many players contrived to lose the BMW PGA Championship and left a somewhat bemused Anders Hansen as champion for the second time.

Unlike his triumph over the West Course in 2002, when Hansen - a 36-year-old Dane who has struggled for much of this season after deciding to chase the lure of the dollar on the US Tour - shot the lights out, this was a far more unpredictable affair that was only decided at the first hole of sudden-death when his 20-footer for birdie was sufficient to defeat England's Justin Rose, who subsequently failed with his birdie attempt from 12 feet.

On one of the more curious days that Wentworth has witnessed, Hansen was one of the few to buckle. While the players in the final two-balls stuttered and stumbled, the four men unbelievably shooting a combined total of 28-over between them on the day, Hansen's final round 69 to Rose's 71 left the pair tied on 280, eight under, a shot clear of Vijay Singh and Richard Sterne.

Singh had sought to swoop in under the radar on the title. The Fijian shot a best-of-the-day 66 to finish his quest for the championship, a score that left Padraig Harrington, for one, wondering what might have been. The Dubliner's attempt to claim the €1 million bonus on offer should he follow-up his Irish Open win by also winning here had all but ended on Saturday, yet he went out yesterday believing that a low score, such as the one Singh had, was achievable. In Harrington's case, though, a score such as Singh's was out of his reach; and he anti-climatically shot a final round 74 for 287, to finish in tied-24th position, seven shots behind.

"It was fun while it lasted," said Harrington of the million euro pursuit, adding: "I couldn't do anything right. I did so many sloppy things out there. I look back and I say, 'wow, could I have made up six or seven shots?' And the answer is yes, I could. No question about it, if I was mentally strong and swinging the way I was swinging. I could have done it in today's round or yesterday's round. But I'm too tired to give myself any hardship over it."

In the end, Harrington didn't even finish as the leading Irishman. After five holes of his second round on Friday, Peter Lawrie was five-over-par for the tournament and looking likely to catch an early flight home. "I had a wee chat to myself on the sixth hole on Friday," he recalled yesterday, after shooting a finishing round of 69 for 285 which left him in tied-12th. "I said, 'why are you getting so down on yourself? Enjoy yourself, there are people who would give their right arm to be out here. It's not the end of the world'."

The result of the self-help talk was a metamorphosis that saw Lawrie not only survive the cut, but make greater inroads that eventually moved him to the fringes of a top-10 finish. The highlight of yesterday's round for Lawrie was holing out with a seven-iron second shot for an eagle two on the seventh hole. His 12th-place finish gave Lawrie a cheque for €63,183 that moved him from 88th to 63rd on the money list.

On a day when so many players saw their title aspirations disappear - joint third round leaders Ross Fisher and Paul Broadhurst shot rounds of 84 and 80 respectively - Hansen, despite bogeying two of his first three holes, stayed strongest and added four birdies without dropping a shot on the remainder of the round. When he rolled in a birdie putt on the 18th, it left him as leader on his own.

Of those in the final three groups, only Rose could match Hansen's mark. Rose, who had suffered a double-bogey on the ninth when he drove out-of-bounds, came back strongly with three birdies (and a bogey) on the back nine. The third birdie came on the 18th, where he hit a wedge to within 12 inches, to force a play-off.

But the Englishman fell at the first hole of sudden-death, where Hansen, a player without a win anywhere since claiming this title five years ago, calmly rolled in his birdie putt and Rose missed with his.

Hansen's win came out of the blue: his only other appearance in Europe this season saw him finish tied-56th, while he has missed the cut in four of nine appearances on the US Tour. Hansen's win - taking the top prize of €725,000 - moved him from 262nd to ninth on the Order of Merit.

It may prompt a rethink on his decision to play so much in America. "I'm more comfortable here," he admitted.