Ian Woosnam factfile
World Match Play records
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Ian Woosnam now has a reason to look back on the year 2001 for the superb way he won £250,000 rather than the bizarre way he lost £218,334.

The 43-year-old Welshman became the oldest ever Cisco World Match Play champion at Wentworth on Sunday with a memorable, records-galore two and one win over Padraig Harrington.

If not quite burying the memory of the Open in July - he finished third after a two-stroke penalty for carrying an illegal 15th club in his bag at the start of the last round - it certainly was as good a compensation as he could hope for.

Woosnam, unseeded after being invited to take part only two weeks ago following a number of American withdrawals, produced a breathtaking start and fighting comeback for his first victory anywhere for more than four-and-a-half years.

"It's been a long time and to beat four great players makes me really proud of myself," said the former world number one, whose previous scalps were those of US Open champion Retief Goosen and the last two European number ones, Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood.

Harrington, having seen his opponent go to the turn in 28 with seven successive birdies, came home in a blistering seven-birdie 30 for an 11-under-par 61 which equalled the championship record.

It put him two up at lunch and soon that was three, but with the vast majority of the crowd probably expecting the younger man to prevail from there Woosnam got better and Harrington got worse.

The Irishman called a penalty on himself at the 27th when the ball moved as he was about to play from the trees, but he was also twice in ditches and with five to play it was Woosnam two up.

The next three were halved and the end came on the 35th when, with Harrington having failed to hole from 14 feet for eagle, Woosnam made an eight-footer for a matching birdie four - the 32nd of a match that made everybody concentrate on who was playing and forget who was not.

Woosnam's last win was in South Korea of all places at the start of June 1997 - he beat Sandy Lyle in a play-off - and, having been the first British winner of the title in 1987, he now becomes the first man to win the title in three different decades.

Harrington was asked afterwards if he was angry at the manner of his latest near-miss.

"I'm disgusted more than angry," he said. "I absolutely, totally and utterly let it slip - 100

"The ball was totally in my court. It was absolutely up to me, but I made it a lot easier for Ian. He was under no pressure all the way through the back nine.

"I certainly lost concentration. Why is the unanswered question. I didn't feel tired, so no excuses there.

"The run (of second places) does not bother me in the slightest. Finishing second some weeks can be very good. But individual tournaments like this do bother me.

"There have been three or four of these. I certainly don't feel as though I like to finish the job off. Something is changing coming down the stretch.

"Without a doubt that is happening. I am reasonably patient, but I am losing patience."

Woosnam, who in the process took his European tour earnings to over £7million, added: "I think people have been rooting for me since Lytham, maybe sympathetically, maybe because they just wanted to see somebody older win.

"My iron play was vintage Ian Woosnam. There have been times when I was really getting fed up with the game, not enjoying it and was going to cut down on my schedule.

"But I've been working with Pete Cowen (Westwood's coach) and it showed up today when the pressure was on.

"That was one of the best matches I have ever played in and the most nervous I got was at two-up with two to play. I just didn't want to go down the last - I didn't want a repeat of what happened against Tiger Woods."

In the 1998 championship Woosnam was one up with one to go, but three-putted and lost at the 37th.

Harrington literally got the ball rolling in the morning by sinking a 35-footer at the first.

They shared the second and fourth in birdies, but in between Woosnam holed from 15 feet and when he also found the target from eight, seven, nine and 12 feet starting at the fifth he had equalled his own championship record of seven birdies in a row.

To his credit Harrington matched the last two of them to stay only two down, but when he missed from four feet on the ninth and bogeyed the gap was a worrying three.

What Harrington had to tell himself, however, was that he had turned in a four under 31 and Woosnam's record-breaking 28 was a pace he could not hope to maintain.

So it proved. Woosnam missed a seven-footer on the 10th, Harrington holed from the same distance and with birdies on the next three as well he was the one ahead.

And after the Welshman made a curling 20-footer at the 15th Harrington responded again, making amends for a poor drive down the 16th by hitting a seven-iron to eight feet.

He was presented with the 17th, Woosnam driving into the trees and three-putting for a bogey six, and when they shared the 18th in birdie fours Harrington's 61 equalled the championship record Colin Montgomerie had set against him last year.

The second round was never likely to reach such heights. Harrington bogeyed the 19th, Woosnam the 20th, but after going three-up at the next with an eight-foot birdie putt Harrington went through a real sticky patch.

He drove wildly into a ditch on the 25th and two holes later - the 26th was halved in birdie threes - looked like taking a quadruple bogey eight before he conceded.

In the trees off the tee he called a penalty on himself when his ball moved.

Woosnam was lucky to avoid a ditch through the green with his second, but moments later Harrington was in and so he turned only one-up.

That became two when he bogeyed the 31st and Woosnam was in no mood to let him back in.

Finishing second has its disappointments, but it also has its financial rewards.

Harrington's seven runners-up finishes this year have earned him a total of £673,690.

He lost to Vijay Singh in a play-off for the Malaysian Open in February, having been two ahead with two to play, while in Dubai he was joint second with Tiger Woods after the world number one double-bogeyed the closing par five.

The next second place was in the Portuguese Open, where he held or shared the lead the first three days but ended up two behind Phil Price, then on home soil he was joint runner-up to Colin Montgomerie in the Irish Open and to Darren Clarke in the European Open.

The other came last month at the BMW International in Munich, where he was level with John Daly on the final tee, but went into water and was beaten by a birdie.