EUROPEAN TOUR NEWS:PETER LAWRIE finally became a European Tour winner at the 175th attempt yesterday - and made it three Irish wins in a row.
On a dramatic final day to the Spanish Open in Seville, the Dubliner prevented Ignacio Garrido creating Tour history when he won a play-off at the second extra hole.
Garrido was seeking to emulate his father, Antonio, winner in 1972, and kept his hopes alive when he sank a closing 30-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to tie Lawrie on 15 under par.
The Spaniard then looked poised for the €333,330 first prize when he pitched to three feet as they played the 18th again in sudden death.
However, 34-year-old Lawrie made a 25-footer for a matching birdie three, and Garrido's next pitch to the same green spun back into the water.
"I'm not a party person, but I will enjoy this," said Lawrie after following the lead of his room-mate Damien McGrane and Darren Clarke, winners of the two previous Tour events in China.
The closest he had come to success before was in the same tournament in 2003 when he lost a play-off to England's Kenneth Ferrie.
He has now put that firmly behind him, but although Garrido has captured the Tour's flagship PGA Championship, also five years ago, it will be a massive disappointment that he has now finished a runner-up in the Spanish Open three times.
The former Ryder Cup player led by a massive seven strokes when he signed for a course-record 63 on Friday, and was still three clear entering the final round.
Lawrie was five adrift then and still four behind after an outward 35, but he birdied the long 13th and then had three more in succession from the 15th, the last of them courtesy of a 40-foot putt.
"I've three bullets to dodge and if I dodge them I'm the winner," he commented as he waited to see what happened to the players still out on the course.
Dane Soren Hansen had a 12-foot chance to tie, but missed, then Miguel Angel Jimenez, who was in front until he put two balls in the water on the 10th and ran up a triple bogey seven, fell out of the running as well.
That left only one bullet, but Garrido was eventually unable to stop Lawrie breaking his duck.
As for his putt on the first play-off hole, the 2003 Rookie of the Year, an Irish international at all levels as an amateur, commented: "It was a one in a million chance and it went in.
"I thought it was going to stop short left and it snuck in. I'd love to see a replay of myself."
Lawrie, normally calmness personified, went into a jig.
But there was more work to be done, and despite pushing his next tee-shot into sand he found the green and a par four was good enough after Garrido's error.
"It's nice to keep it in the Irish contingent," he added. "It spurs you on. You play practice rounds with them and think, 'Why can't I do it'?"
But now he has, and as a result he has moved from 88th to 12th on the Order of Merit and into 19th spot in the Ryder Cup race.
Alongside Jimenez were English pair David Lynn and Richard Finch and little-known Spaniard Alfredo Garcia.
Clarke closed with a 73 that left him on seven under, while Paul McGinley shot a 71 to finish two shots back.
A 74 from Colin Montgomerie put him 70th of the 75 players who made the cut.
