Brooks On The Mark

Mark Brooks grabbed his first major title on Sunday when he beat fellow American Kenny Perry at the first hole of a play-off for the United States PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.

The 35-year-old Texan, third and fifth in the last two Opens in Britain, birdied the 540-yard 18th to force sudden death and then did the same to claim the biggest success of his career.

Perry, two shots ahead with two to play, handed the trophy - and a cheque for over £280,000 - to Brooks on a plate almost by first bogeying the 18th in regulation play and then making a similar hash of it when they returned to the tee.

The pair finished on the 11 under par total of 277, with Brooks shooting 70 and Perry 68 as overnight leader Russ Cochran crashed to a 77.

It was a day when a whole host of players had an opportunity to win. Left-hander Cochran, like Perry a home state player, took a two-shot lead into the round, but never recovered from a bogey at the fifth and double bogey seven on the seventh.

Fijian Vijay Singh took over top spot at that moment, but then Brooks came racing past with a hat-trick of birdies from the sixth.

The pressure got to him as well when he bogeyed the 11th and 12th and at that moment Perry moved into the hot seat, finishing the outward half with two birdies and picking up further strokes on the 11th, 12th and 14th.

"I thought `Man, this is unbelievable' - this is my day," he said later, but after a scrambling par at the 15th and another chip and single putt on the 17th had kept him two in front he hooked his drive badly on the last.

His second did not make the fairway and his third was left of the green. After that he hit a good pitch to seven feet, but missing it meant a bogey six and gave those left in the title race a chance.

It came down to Singh, defending champion Steve Elkington and Brooks all needing a birdie at the last to tie - or an eagle to win.

Singh, who birdied the 17th to revive his hopes of a first major, and Elkington were playing together and both found sand at the last, Singh off the tee and the Australian with his second.

Singh went left of the green from the bunker, then pitched far too strongly.

The ball ran into the rough and meant he had to chip in to tie Perry, but it was not to be and he ended up bogeying the hole as well to fall back alongside Swede Jesper Parnevik and American Justin Leonard in joint fifth place.

From a plugged lie, Elkington came out to 12 feet, but pulled it left and his hopes of keeping the trophy were over. He finished joint third with another American, Tommy Tolles, who had set the early clubhouse target at 10 under with a 67.

Brooks went into the same bunker as Elkington, but had a better lie. He came out superbly to under four feet and holed it to force a play-off. A play-off which brought him his first major title.

After they returned to the tee Brooks hit the fairway, while Perry drove into the left rough. And this time it was four more shots before Perry was on the green.

Brooks, meanwhile, had smashed a fairway wood on to the putting surface and had three for it. He did not need them, sinking a five-foot birdie putt.

This was the third major in succession won by a player without one of golf's big four titles to his name. The other two were Americans as well - Steve Jones at the US Open and Tom Lehman at the Open.

Parnevik was in with a chance most of the round, but his luck was out. His approach to the 16th kicked off a bank, rolled towards the hole, but stopped two inches short.

He would have been 10 under if it had travelled that extra distance and he too would have needed a birdie at the last.

It was still a great week for him - and for Swedish golf, since Per-Ulrik Johansson was joint eighth on eight under.

Ian Woosnam finished as leading Briton on two under par 286 after a 71, five ahead of Nick Faldo (73) and 12 clear of Yorkshire's Howard Clark, who slumped to a 78 after being forced to change his shoes at the turn.

"I hit a drive down the fifth and heard this rip," he said. "The whole of the sole came loose and I was worried about the shoe disintegrating, so I switched to another pair.

"Changing my shoes changed my luck, though." He came home in 43 after going to the turn in 35.

Woosnam's only bogey of the day came on the 16th, but he was unlucky not to finish in real style on the last.

A three-wood second carried the bunker 235 yards away, but skipped into the back rough and a stubbed chip meant he had to settle for a par five, a 71 and a two under total of 286.

"That was the most solid shot I hit - I ripped it," he said. "I was shocking on the practice range, but I didn't play too badly. I'm just so inconsistent at the moment and feel so poor with my driver."

Tom Watson, needing only the PGA to complete a career Grand Slam of the majors, threatened to do it when he went to the turn in 31 and then birdied the 10th.

The 46-year-old was joint second at that moment, but birdied the 12th, 13th and 16th and after finishing six under commented: "I needed to have a mistake-free round and I didn't get it.

"I'm more than mildly disappointed because I had a chance to win."