Golf:Bill Haas holed a monster 45-foot birdie putt to win a three-man play-off for the Northern Trust Open in California. The 29-year-old carded a final-round two-under 69 to earn a share of the overall lead with Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley - but it was on the second play-off hole that he produced the magic which earned him the win.
Mickelson was the only one of the trio to drive well at the 10th hole but, despite landing in the rough, Haas finished the better, chipping on to the green and then sinking a massive putt that put the pressure on his rivals.
And with neither Mickelson nor Bradley able to land a birdie of their own, Haas was left to celebrate his fourth Tour title.
"I never expected to make a 40-footer, and especially in that situation," Haas told pgatour.com. "That was a little bit of luck involved, but felt like I put a good roll on it, and it was meant to be, I guess."
It was a frustrating day for Bradley and Mickelson.
The duo, the latter of which was chasing back-to-back titles after winning at Pebble Beach last week, both carded even-par 71s, making no movement in their score column from the third round - although they needed 18th-hole birdies to even force a play-off after Haas shot ahead of them.
"Bill hit a tremendous putt," Mickelson said. "We're thinking it's a very difficult three, it's a defensive hole. You're just trying to make four believe it or not. It's only 290 yards, 280 yards, but you're trying to make par. He ended up making a 50-, 60-footer and that's going to do it."
That will have been of particular annoyance to four-time major winner Mickelson, who appeared set fare for a win after a storming five-under 66 on day one.
The course dried up for a lot of players after that, though, with Sergio Garcia's stunning round one of the exceptions.
The Spaniard carded a seven-under 64, meaning he ended the tournament on five-under, two shots behind the leaders. However, Garcia was left to rue his five-over 76 on Friday - with the Ryder Cup star finishing level with Jimmy Walker, Jarrod Lyle and Dustin Johnson.
Justin Rose was again steady, with his second par round leaving him two-under for the week, something world No.1 Luke Donald would have loved to have been able to say.
Having started out with a solid 70, 72, 71 run, he posted a horror seven-over 78, leaving him way down the leaderboard, although likely Ryder Cup rivals Rickie Barnes (eight over) and Stewart Cink (nine over) spared some of his blushes.
Another man to have a bad day was Bryce Molder, who started out a shot behind Mickelson and Bradley and ended it six adrift, dropping five strokes on his way around.
Pádraig Harrington, Ireland's three-time major champion, ended four over for the tournament.
Collated final-round scores & totals (USA unless stated, par 71):
277Bill Haas 72 68 68 69 (won at 2nd play-off hole), Phil Mickelson 66 70 70 71, Keegan Bradley 71 69 66 71
279Dustin Johnson 71 70 67 71, Jarrod Lyle (Aus) 73 65 71 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 69 76 70 64, Jimmy Walker 72 66 72 69
280J.B. Holmes 67 73 70 70, Bo Van Pelt 74 68 68 70, Jonathan Byrd 68 70 69 73
281Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 73 69 66 73, Jim Furyk 72 70 69 70
282Pat Perez 72 65 70 75, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 72 72 71 67, Justin Rose (Eng) 70 70 71 71, Bubba Watson 70 69 72 71
283Bryce Molder 74 67 66 76, Michael Thompson 72 72 71 68, Zach Johnson 71 69 71 72, Adam Scott (Aus) 73 71 69 70, Marc Leishman (Aus) 70 69 71 73, Brandt Snedeker 75 70 68 70, Ryan Moore 72 69 68 74
284Kyle Stanley 74 68 70 72, Ryan Palmer 76 69 68 71, Matt Kuchar 69 69 75 71, Kevin Chappell 73 67 73 71, Hunter Mahan 67 75 70 72, Kevin Stadler 71 71 72 70, K J Choi (Kor) 69 71 74 70, Johnson Wagner 73 71 68 72, Cameron Tringale 70 74 69 71
285Vijay Singh (Fij) 74 70 71 70
286Nick Watney 73 70 69 74, Jason Kokrak 76 67 70 73, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 73 67 72 74, J.J Killeen 71 69 71 75, Charlie Wi (Kor) 75 69 70 72, Briny Baird 71 70 72 73, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 68 70 76 72, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 72 72 69 73
287Brendon De Jonge 73 69 71 74, Erik Compton 73 72 69 73
288Jeff Overton 73 72 71 72, John Senden (Aus) 73 70 72 73, David Hearn (Can) 70 73 74 71, Graham Delaet (Can) 73 68 73 74, Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 74 70 74 70
289George McNeill 76 67 73 73, Bobby Gates 73 72 69 75, Harrison Frazar 71 74 74 70
290Bud Cauley 74 70 71 75, Spencer Levin 73 66 73 78, Jason Dufner 72 72 73 73, Tommy Gainey 70 73 70 77
291Luke Donald (Eng) 70 72 71 78, John Mallinger 71 71 75 74, Kevin Streelman 74 70 71 76
292Vaughn Taylor 72 71 73 76, Ernie Els (Rsa) 73 68 73 78, Ken Duke 69 72 78 73
293Ricky Barnes 71 71 77 74, Billy Mayfair 72 73 72 76, Joe Ogilvie 71 71 72 79, Rickie Fowler 75 69 70 79, Jason Day (Aus) 73 71 75 74
294Cameron Beckman 70 75 71 78, Stewart Cink 69 71 74 80
295Brendan Steele 69 74 74 78, Gary Woodland 73 71 74 77, Troy Matteson 68 75 77 75
296Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 73 70 76 77, Sung-hoon Kang (Kor) 72 71 73 80, Matt Bettencourt 73 70 77 76
297Bill Lunde 73 72 74 78
300Kevin Na 74 71 78 77
