Seven days after helping Europe capture the Ryder Cup Padraig Harrington won the biggest cheque of his golfing life on Sunday.

In a thrilling climax to the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews the Irishman, having repeatedly stared the 18th runners-up finish of his career in the face, beat Argentina's Eduardo Romero at the second hole of a sudden death play-off.

It earned Harrington £514,535 and stopped 48-year-old Romero becoming the oldest winner in European tour history.

One behind playing the last, Harrington pitched to 20 feet and Romero to 10. But he was the one to hole for birdie and that meant they tied on the 19-under-par mark of 269.

At the first extra hole Romero had another chance, but missed from just under 20 feet and then on the next he holed from 10 feet and the South American, winner of the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond in July, failed from less than five.

"Obviously I'm on a high at the moment, but with this and the Ryder Cup I'm going to be exhausted next week," said Harrington, who had lost his three previous play-offs.

There was double cause for celebration because he also won the team part of the celebrity pro-am with racehorse owner JP McManus.

"I was very confident all day because I was hitting the ball well, but I had to stay patient and wait for the chances. The holes were running out, though."

Joint third were Colin Montgomerie - after a course-record equalling 63 - Fiji's Vijay Singh and also Sandy Lyle, for whom it represented his best finish since he lost a play-off to Ian Woosnam in Korea five years.

A cheque of nearly £160,000 was also the biggest of Lyle's 25-year European tour career and it ended the worry of losing his exemption this season and having to rely mostly on sponsors' invitations next year.

Despite his brilliant score Montgomerie would have been in the play-off if he had birdied the 357-yard last rather than bogeyed it.

His drive finished in a sand-filled divot hole and his pitch from there failed to make it to the green and ended up in the Valley of Sin.

It was a place that, surprisingly, he had never putted from in all his years of coming to the Old Course and he left his birdie attempt 15 feet short and missed.

That left the stage to Romero and Harrington, who had topped the leaderboard from the moment former opened with a 65 at Carnoustie on Thursday and Harrington with a 66 there.

Level with a round to play, Romero sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the first, but had a bogey on the next to Harrington's birdie.

Romero was then two clear after further birdies at the seventh, 11th and 12th before the pendulum swung once more. Harrington birdied the 13th and Romero bogeyed the next.

The Dubliner's bogey at the 456-yard 15th, however, gave the South American the advantage again. But his miss on the last meant they both had to work overtime before the issue - and the huge sums of money - was settled.

Harrington, whose last win was the Volvo Masters last November, is now right back in the hunt for the Order of Merit title with a month to go. It looks a fight between him and South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen - and Els is the outsider of the three after withdrawing on Sunday to be present at the birth of his second child.

When Montgomerie stood nine under for the day on the 12th green he thought he might not only win the title, but also shoot the first sub-60 round in European tour history just a week after being the top points-scorer in Europe's Ryder Cup win.

"I'd just had six birdies in a row and you feel you could birdie every hole. But what I was really thinking about was that I was 17 under and I wanted to get to 20 under.

"I failed in that task, but I did OK. Even when I was on the 17th tee I would have taken a four-four finish. As it happened it was three-five.

"I was fortunate on the 17th. I pushed my drive and pulled my second."

Narrowly avoiding the cavernous Road Hole bunker his six-iron ran up to two feet and that left him needing one more birdie for the first-ever 61 at the 'Home of Golf.'

Paul Lawrie's 63 en route to winning the title last year is the current course record, but before the lengthening of some holes Curtis Strange fired a 62 playing for America in the 1987 Alfred Dunhill Cup and later matched by Mark O'Meara.

Montgomerie now believes that all things are possible again in his career.

"People say that my major opportunity has gone and in down times you tend to believe them," he commented. "Majors are more difficult now because Tiger has entered them, but in the last few years there are players who have won one that I feel I am as good as.

"It wouldn't change my life, but it might change the questions I get asked!"

For the record, Montgomerie opened with birdie putts of two and 12 feet, two-putted the long fifth and then from the seventh to the 12th found the target from 12, 15, 15, 12, four and 12 feet.

The Old Course has not always been kind to him - in the Dunhill Cup days he lost to the well-known trio of Zhang Lian-Wei, Gaurav Ghei and Raul Fretes.

"I was not playing a Chinaman or Indian or Paraguayan this time," he joked. "I was playing with an Englishman and a Dutchman and felt quite comfortable.

"It's been a good two weeks in my life. I can't complain about the bogey at the last - not after a 63."

Lyle, still waiting for a first win since the 1992 Volvo Masters, fell flat on his back when he finished with a birdie.

"It's nice to know I can still compete at this high level," stated the former Open and US Masters champion.

"It's been a pretty frustrating time for me in recent times, but this is hopefully the start as I try to get back up the rankings."

Collated final totals (Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

269 Padraig Harrington 66 66 68 69 (£514,535), Eduardo Romero (Arg) 65 68 67 69 (£343,021)

(Harrington won play-off at second extra hole)

271 Colin Montgomerie 70 69 69 63, Sandy Lyle 69 67 67 68, Vijay Singh (Fij) 70 67 64 70 (£159,506 each)

272 Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 66 69 69 68 (£108,052)

273 Brian Davis 70 69 69 65, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 67 68 73 65

274 Rolf Muntz (Ned) 68 74 66 66, Adam Scott (Aus) 68 70 68 68

275 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 67 67 73 68, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 70 66 67 72

276 David Gilford 72 69 67 68, Santiago Luna (Spa) 67 69 70 70

277 Mark McNulty (Zim) 68 72 70 67, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 70 73 67 67, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 70 70 64, Nick Lawrence (Rsa) 66 70 72 69

278 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 71 71 69 67, Peter Fowler (Aus) 70 73 65 70, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 73 67 67 71, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 70 70 67 71

279 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 68 75 68 68, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 74 69 68 68, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 71 69 72 67, Jonathan Lomas 68 75 71 65

280 Justin Rose 70 71 70 69, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 75 71 66 68, Gary Emerson 75 69 68 68, Andrew Coltart 73 67 70 70, Phillip Price 69 68 73 70, Simon Dyson 71 68 69 72, Paul Eales 72 67 68 73, Greg Owen 76 68 70 66

281 Stephen Dodd 75 71 66 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 67 73 71, Nick Faldo 75 68 66 72, Darren Clarke 72 72 69 68, Ian Poulter 74 73 67 67

282 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 74 69 68 71, Brett Rumford (Aus) 75 69 68 70, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 72 70 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 71 70 70, Gordon Brand Jnr 71 67 72 72, Steve Elkington (Aus) 73 70 70 69, Barry Hume 74 67 68 73, Paul Lawrie 74 68 71 69, James Kingston 76 66 72 68, Warren Bennett 78 70 66 68, Lee Westwood 76 68 70 68

283 Richard Green (Aus) 71 70 70 72, Paul Broadhurst 72 68 71 72, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 74 69 71 69, Tobias Dier (Ger) 75 71 68 69, Alan McLean 76 65 73 69

284 Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 76 70 68 70, Andrew Oldcorn 73 73 68 70

285 David Lynn 73 71 67 74, Scott Drummond 74 68 70 73, John Bickerton 74 68 71 72, Gary Clark 71 73 66 75, David Howell 79 67 67 72, Paul McGinley 73 72 69 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 71 70 71

286 Jamie Donaldson 70 74 70 72, Richard Johnson (Swe) 71 71 72 72, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 70 72 72 72

287 Richard Lee (Nzl) 72 73 67 75, Marc Farry (Fra) 71 74 68 74

288 Raymond Russell 70 72 71 75

289 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 70 70 74 75

Withdrew: Ernie Els (Rsa)

Leading teams:

251 Padraig Harrington and JP McManus

257 Steve Elkington and Clay Walker, Angel Cabrera and Steve Carr, Eduardo Romero and Neil Crichton