Retief Goosen today beat Ireland's Padraig Harrington in the race for the 2002 Volvo Order of Merit title, becoming only the seventh player to retain the title. Although the South African finished only 12 over par in the Volvo Masters at Valderrama, his closing 71 saw him finish one shot ahead of the Dubliner, sufficient for him to clinch the title.
Goosen had led Harrington by €23,119 at the start of the week and the Irishman needed to finish no worse than 27th today to attempt to leapfrog the title-holder. But Goosen bounced back from a double-bogey five at the 187-yard third with two birdies in the final eight holes to give Harrington no chance of overhauling him in the standings. Harrington, one shot clear of Goosen overnight, bogeyed the last two holes on his way to a two-over-par 73 to close at 13-over 297.
"It's been pretty disappointing for the two of us the way we've been playing over the past two weeks," said Goosen, who became the first player since Sandy Lyle in 1980 to clinch the order of merit crown with just one victory during the season. "In fact, I've not been playing that well for the past five months, except for the American Express Championship (at Mount Juliet in Ireland in September) where I finished second. "But you've got to play pretty well over the course of the season to defend this title. It's great to come through and pull it off."
Goosen follows in the footsteps of Englishmen Charlie Ward (1949) and Peter Oosterhuis (1972, 1973 and 1974), Ireland's Christy O'Connor (1962), Spaniard Seve Ballesteros (1977, 1987) and Scotsmen Sandy Lyle (1980) and Colin Montgomerie (from 1994 to 1999) in defending the European Tour's order of merit crown.
Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer decided to share the Volvo Masters title with light rapidly fading after two shared holes in their sudden death play-off.
Filed by James Boylan.
