Price gets hot to beat Frost in playoff

ZIMBABWE'S Nick Price put himself in great heart for April's US Masters when he won his second successive tournament in South Africa yesterday.

Price overcame a determined David Frost after a playoff to add the Alfred Dunhill SA PGA title to the Dimension Data victory of the previous week and a second place in the SA Open the week before that, to take three large strides to regaining his position as world number one.

But while it was triumph for Price and £47,400, the final day proved frustrating for the top Irish finisher, Paul McGinley, and worrying for Padraig Harrington.

Price has cleaned up in a golden, three-week spell in South Africa. Yesterday he posted a 66 to overhaul Frost, who led him by five going into the final round, but started by dropping four shots over his opening five holes. Almost as he was signing his card, however, Frost ran in a huge putt on the 16th to draw level with the Zimbabwean on 19-under-par.

Then the South African looked sunk after finding water on the short-17th, but girded his loins for a last-ditch birdie and a 71 to force the playoff.

The extra hole, though, was something of an anticlimax as Frost bogeyed by missing the green, and Price got the par with two putts from 25ft.

McGinley bogeyed the last hole to spoil an accomplished finish, shaving to settle for a four-under-par 68 and 11-under-par for 20th place and £3,290, eight shots behind the playoff men.

Harrington's woes had begun with a break-in at his hotel on Thursday when his safe was raided and credit card and mobile phone stolen. Then on Friday night and Saturday morning he was beset with injury problems. He already suffers tennis-elbow, which causes him to play with a brace on his left elbow. He had to don spectacles after the first round because of not being able to see lines properly. Now he hash tendinitis in his left wrist.

The Stackstown professional played with his wrist strapped up, had to miss practice and sought emergency treatment over the weekend, but with the injury not easing, he is already thinking about changing his 10-event schedule.

His first hurdle is to get himself ready for this week's lucrative Desert Classic in Dubai, and his closing round of 72 was hardly the main thing on his mind.

He would again, though, have preferred to have putted much better and not put a double-bogey on his card on the 13th to drop to 54th place on five-under-par, the first time he has failed to make the top-50 after beating the cut. That earned him only £1,106 and relevant Ryder Cup points.

"The wrist has become very painful," said Harrington, "and the pain isn't going away, so I have to hope it won't be a problem in Dubai. It does look as though I will have to make some changes and have a rethink about my 10-tournament schedule. First I want to get fit for Dubai and then I'll see what to do."

He will almost certainly go on to Morocco, though, the following week. "I'm in the eight-man Sahara Cup team against Africa, so I'll definitely want to be playing in Morocco," added Harrington. "But at the moment I can't even practice, just play my round."

When he played his round yesterday he still could not find the telling birdie putts which would have hauled him up the leaderboard; a six-footer on the 10th was his first of any note for two-and-a-half rounds.

Then, on the 13th, he found himself in the bushes, tried to go for the green over the lake - and hit a tree and went into water to double-bogey.

Two birdies got him back under-par and would have gained him the top-50 slot, but then he bogeyed the last after going through the fairway and getting a flyer past the green.

McGinley's bogey on the last was unexpected as he drove to the middle of the fairway, but then bunkered his approach. It left him with a sour taste to close his week, having collected five birdies.

"It was just one bad shot," he said. "My big problem was putting. It was a frustrating week on the greens. But I'm glad to be in good form otherwise for Dubai."

David Higgins goes to Dubai today with a similar disenchantment with his putting after another indifferent 73 dropped him to three-under-par and 63rd place for £663.

At least Harrington's meagre prize kept him in 12th place on the Ryder Cup table, where Darren Clarke, already warming up in Dubai last week, remains fifth.

Harrington and his caddie, John O'Reilly, had more blows to come at the weekend, however. O'Reilly's apartment was also burgled, losing £210 he was to use to buy a present for his daughter's confirmation this week. The thief also, curiously, took a bottle of after-shave. When Harrington went to pay his hotel bill, he discovered Thursday's thief had also cleaned out his mini-bar.

Defending champion Peter Senior sank a six-foot birdie putt at the fourth playoff hole to clinch his third Canon Challenge golf title in four years at Terrey Hills, Sydney, yesterday.

The 37-year-old Senior holed the winning putt with his broomstick putter to deny rising New Zealand star Steve Alker from claiming his third tournament on this season's Australasian Tour.

Alker, who won the Queensland and South Australian Opens this summer, produced a blistering finish with a course record equalling seven-under 65, including eight birdies, to finish at 14-under 274 and seemed set for his third tour title.

But Senior, the two-shot overnight leader, caught him with his fifth back-nine birdie at the 17th, sinking a snaking 45-foot putt to force the playoff.