Former Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer narrowly missed out on his first victory in five years in the Crowne Plaza Invitational.

Langer lost out in a play-off with South African Rory Sabbatini and Jim Furyk at Colonial, Sabbatini making a birdie on the first hole of sudden death.

The 49-year-old German then missed from eight feet to match Sabbatini's birdie.

The trio had finished tied on 14 under par in the rain-delayed event after firing matching closing rounds of 67.

American Pat Perez was fourth on 12 under.

Langer had led by two shots midway through the round but bogeyed the 12th and needed a birdie on the 17th and scrambled par on the 18th to get into the play-off.

Although he failed to end his title drought after losing out to Sabbatini, Langer was pleased to be in contention again and paid tribute to the South African, who held his nerve to sink a lengthy putt and claim his fourth PGA Tour title.

"Rory made a great putt," Langer said.

"He was quite a bit further away than me - several feet - and hit it right in the middle of the hole.

"I looked at the putt and felt very comfortable with my read, but I pushed it.

"I'm disappointed I didn't win but at the same time I'm

encouraged with my game.

"It's the best I've played for a while and that's very encouraging."

The 49-year-old was also chasing his first win on the PGA Tour since claiming the Masters in 1993.

"I wasn't trying to think about that," Langer added.

"A lot of stuff goes through your mind because there's so much time walking around and standing around watching others.

"I tried to focus on the next shot and just play as well as I can, and as hard as I can, and see where we stand at the end.

"Most of the day I succeeded. Every once in a while I had a different thought but it didn't linger too long, so that was good."

Sabbatini revealed he was in no doubt his winning putt was going in once he saw the line but was still surprised Langer missed his chance to prolong the play-off

"About four feet to go, I knew there was pretty much no chance

of that putt missing," he said.

"When I looked up and saw that, it was a good feeling.

"There are very few things in life that, to me, are as amazing as when you hit a putt and you know you hit it on the line you wanted to and you see it go right in the middle of the hole.

"I never trust Bernard over a putt because chances are he is going to make it," he added.

"I was actually a little shocked to see it slide by the right edge."

Furyk nearly won the tournament right at the end of his final round but a long birdie putt on the 18th stopped an inch short of the hole.

"I misread the one on 18 the first time around," he said.

"I think everyone missed that putt out to the right a little bit. But I gave myself some opportunities."

Final collated scores (US unless stated, par 70):

266 Bernhard Langer (De) 65 68 66 67, Rory Sabbatini (Za) 70 67 62 67

Jim Furyk 65 66 68 67

Sabbatini won the play-off

268 Pat Perez 66 67 69 66

269 Nathan Green (Au) 65 66 72 66, Tom Lehman 66 67 68 68

270 Jerry Kelly 70 64 69 67, Kevin Na (Kr) 63 69 70 68

Harrison Frazar 68 67 69 66, Scott Verplank 70 66 63 71

D.J. Trahan 67 67 69 67

271 Rodney Pampling (Au) 67 69 70 65, Jeff Maggert 64 69 68 70

Tim Petrovic 70 68 67 66, Mark Hensby (Au) 69 67 68 67

Nick O'Hern (Au) 70 66 68 67, Tim Clark (Za) 65 64 74 68

272 Anthony Kim 63 69 73 67, Justin Leonard 69 70 66 67

David Toms 70 68 68 66, Stewart Cink 67 69 66 70, Jason Bohn 68 66 70 68

Peter Lonard (Au) 65 69 67 71

273 Steve Stricker 67 71 68 67, Stephen Marino 69 68 71 65

John Rollins 69 68 67 69, KJ Choi (Kr) 67 70 69 67

Eric Axley 68 67 69 69

274 Dean Wilson 68 67 71 68, Arron Oberholser 64 66 73 71

Lucas Glover 67 68 68 71, Ben Curtis 64 67 74 69

Cliff Kresge 69 67 70 68, Brandt Snedeker 66 70 67 71

Ryan Moore 71 66 66 71

275 Jeff Quinney 65 72 68 70, Ted Purdy 64 71 72 68

Michael Putnam 69 65 70 71, Matt Kuchar 68 70 70 67

Stephen Leaney (Au) 68 68 70 69, Alex Cejka (De) 67 65 72 71

Chad Campbell 67 68 68 72, Douglas Labelle 67 70 69 69

Mark Brooks 67 71 70 67, Frank Lickliter II 65 71 69 70

276 Joe Durant 67 72 68 69, Tim Herron 67 68 70 71

Billy Mayfair 71 67 71 67, Bo Van Pelt 68 71 67 70

Heath Slocum 70 65 72 69, Bob Tway 73 64 70 69

277 Will MacKenzie 67 71 70 69, J J Henry 68 67 72 70

Brett Wetterich 66 69 71 71, Carl Pettersson (Se) 74 65 70 68

Steve Elkington (Au) 67 69 71 70, Stephen Ames (Ca) 69 67 7071

278 Charles Warren 69 68 69 72, Mathew Goggin (Au) 70 69 70 69

Davis Love III 69 68 72 69

279 Ryan Armour 67 68 74 70

280 Steve Flesch 70 69 69 72, Tommy Armour III 71 68 71 70

Mark Wilson 68 71 70 71

283 Richard S Johnson (Se) 70 68 76 69, Duffy Waldorf 70 69 72 72

Brett Quigley 67 72 70 74, Matthew Every 69 66 75 73

Rocco Mediate 70 68 70 75

285 Ryan Palmer 70 69 73 73