Cink beats Watson in Open play-off

American golfer Stewart Cink defeated his compatriot Tom Watson in a four-hole play-off at the end of the Open Championship at Turnberry yesterday to get his hands on the famous Claret Jug after the pair had finished the regulation 72 holes tied on two-under par.

The 59-year-old Watson had previously won five Opens, including one of this course before, was 1,500-1 to win the tournament at the beginning of the week and would have sealed a victory had he holed for par at the 18th hole, but his putt was short.

Home interest was maintained by Englishmen Chris Wood and Lee Westwood, who finished tied in joint third on one-under par, Westwood having had the chance to join the play-off when he took three putts for a bogey on the last hole.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Lawrence Donegan, the Guardian: "On a day of poetry, prose had the final word when the US Ryder Cup player Stewart Cink edged out the US legend Tom Watson in a play-off to win the 2009 Open Championship. It was a victory for reality over fantasy or, to put it another way, it was a crushing disappointment for those who prefer their sporting occasions steeped in romance. 'It would have been a hell of a story, a wonderful story. But it wasn't to be and it tears at your gut just like it always has,' the runner-up said. 'Hey, it's not a funeral.' Maybe not, but it sure as hell felt like it. Of course hearty congratulations went to the winner, but the heart itself went out to the man who came up short."

Lynn Truss, the Times: "What a ghastly ending - and I say this as someone who has been tipping Cink for two or three years now. So if anyone should be happy to see this tall Alabaman (ranked 33 in the world) declared Open champion, it’s me. Watching Cink demolish Watson in the play-off was about as pleasant as watching the systematic murder of kittens. No, this was Watson’s Open and I can’t tell you how well prepared I was for him to win it. At my fingers’ ends I had statistics about long-ago chaps such as 'Old' Tom Morris (all of 46 years old when he won in 1867), statistics about the longest previous gap between victories (set by Sir Henry Cotton when he won in 1948, after 11 years)."

Nick Pearce, Daily Telegraph: "Like the giant ogre in a children's scare story Cink stomped all over this Open Championship and crushed our dreams. The big American beat the heroic Watson in a play-off on a day when three different Englishmen had led at various times in the afternoon. Poor Cink, a more than decent American golfer, has just become the biggest villain in Open history. When Tom Watson walked up the final hole needing just a par for victory at the age of 59 maybe even Mrs Cink wanted him to succeed. It would have been the greatest achievement perhaps in all of sport. But our hopes of immortality dribbled past the edge of the hole when Watson wavered over his 10-foot victory putt." ·