Davis Love III secured victory at The Heritage in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, with a birdie on the fourth extra hole of a play-off with Woody Austin.

Both finished on 13 under 271 for the tournament after Love closed with a four-under-par 67 and Austin carded a 68.

David Gossett, Geoff Ogilvy, Chris Riley and Hal Sutton were all tied for third after finishing on 12 under.

Austin twice threw away chances to claim his second career title, lipping out a 5ft birdie putt on the second sudden-death hole and a three-footer for par on the third - both of which would have given him the victory.

It was a heartbreaking four holes for Austin, who suffered a meltdown of another kind here in 1997, when he bent a putter over his head following a bad putt on the 14th hole.

Austin settled for his best finish on the PGA Tour since winning the 1995 Buick Open.

Ernie Els blew a two-stroke lead with a double-bogey, bogey, bogey finish, eventually sharing 10th place on 10 under.

Collated final totals in the the Heritage Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

(US unless stated Par=71)

(Love III Wins with a birdie on the fourth play off hole)

271 Woody Austin 68-70-65-68, Davis Love III 66-69-69-67

272 Geoff Ogilvy 68-67-70-67, David Gossett 71-67-68-66, Chris Riley 69-70-66-67, Hal Sutton 67-66-71-68

273 Matt Gogel 69-67-69-68, Steve Flesch 68-69-67-69, Tom Pernice Jr 67-70-68-68

274 Glen Hnatiuk (Can ) 69-68-69-68, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 67-72-67-68, Jeff Sluman 68-70-64-72, Stewart Cink 67-65-69-73, Ernie Els (Rsa) 69-66-70-69, Bob Estes 69-72-66-67, Jim Furyk 70-66-69-69, Peter Jacobsen 69-69-67-69

275 Tim Clark (Rsa) 68-69-69-69r, Chad Campbell 67-67-70-71, Glen Day 70-70-71-64 Kenny Perry 67-69-67-72

276 Tom Lehman 69-73-68-66

277 Dean Wilson 74-66-70-67, Skip Kendall 72-68-68-69, Corey Pavin 69-68-69-71, Jay Williamson 68-72-71-66

278 John Senden 66-71-69-72, Trevor Immelman 72-69-67-70, Brandt Jobe 68-74-68-68, Briny Baird 69-70-72-67, Scott Simpson 67-71-70-70, Fred Funk 72-69-68-69, Paul Goydos 69-69-68-72, Nick Price (Zim) 68-66-71-73

279 Mark Calcavecchia 69-66-72-72, Darren Clarke (Gbr) 70-69-71-69, Doug Barron 71-67-67-74

280 Garrett Willis 69-72-69-70, Cliff Kresge 70-70-67-73, Scott Verplank 70-68-73-69, Robert Damron, 69-72-69-70, Joe Durant 70-70-74-66, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 71-70-70-69, Len Mattiace 68-73-68-71, Rocco Mediate 67-70-70-73, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 73-69-74-64

281 Craig Barlow 65-76-71-69, Bob Tway 71-67-72-71, Billy Andrade 70-71-73-67, Pat Bates 71-69-69-72, Robert Gamez (Mex) 72-68-70-71, Donnie Hammond 74-63-72-72, Steve Jones 74-68-69-70, Justin Leonard 71-71-68-71, Kelly Mitchum 68-72-74-67

282 Jonathan Byrd 70-71-69-72, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe)73-69-69-71

283 Greg Chalmers 67-72-69-75, Gene Sauers 70-72-70-71, David Edwards 72-67-70-74, Lee Janzen 70-69-73-71

284 Ian Leggatt 72-68-72-72, Loren Roberts 71-70-72-71, Tim Herron 72-70-72-70, Billy Mayfair 70-69-73-72--284 Patrick Sheehan 71-71-72-70

285 D.A. Weibring 69-72-71-73, Andrew Magee 74-67-72-72

286 Luke Donald 73-68-75-70, Todd Barranger 68-72-69-77, Dudley Hart 73-68-72-73, Mark O'Meara 70-71-70-75 , Carl Pettersson (Swe) 69-71-74-72-

287 Thomas Levet 70-71-73-73, Tom Byrum 70-72-71-74

288 John Maginnes 73-69-73-73, Shaun Micheel 72-70-71-75, Carl Paulson 69-73-73-73

289 Joel Edwards 69-72-74-74