Padraig Harrington finished in a tie for 7th place with Robert Allenby at the 30th Nedbank Challenge in Sun City on Sunday after a final 3 over par round of 75 left him signing for a 3 under par total - and fourteen shots behind the winner, Lee Westwood.
Lee Westwood's brilliant chip-in for birdie at the last gave him an eight-shot victory as the world number one had made the final round a no-contest as he built on his five-stroke lead overnight with four birdies and not a single bogey through the first 16 holes. He dropped a shot on the 17th when he over-shot the green, chipped 12 feet past the hole and then left his par-putt short, but Westwood had already put the victory to bed long before that.
The Englishman's success lay in his tremendous control off the tee and with his irons, and his short game was also solid. Six years ago, Westwood went into the final round in the lead but shot an 80 to crash into a tie for sixth place. But the 2000 runner-up (beaten in a playoff by Ernie Els) is now so confident and composed that he was never in any danger of slipping up this time.
"In 2004, I'd won a couple of times that year, but I just wasn't as confident. The number one ranking certainly gives you a massive boost of confidence, you arrive at a tournament knowing that there is no one better than you, at least in the rankings, and you should certainly contend.
"I'm thinking much better about my game now, I'm less likely to panic. I made a mess of it in 2004, but I learnt from that and was able to cruise around today. I didn't put myself under any pressure and I didn't make mistakes to let anyone else in. I'm a bit thinner now too," Westwood said after his impressive triumph.
Westwood closed with a 68 for a 17-under-par total of 271, while Tim Clark, who has the knack of extricating himself from tricky situations, finished second on nine-under-par after a gutsy 71 on Sunday.
Clark, who began the day tied with Ross Fisher in second place five strokes behind Westwood, bogeyed the first hole but then birdied the 10th, 11th and 16th holes, before a bogey on 17 left him needing a par on the last to hang on to second place on his own. A poor chip from the fringe of the 18th green left him with a clutch eight-foot putt for par through his own shadow, but the South African nailed it to hold off Retief Goosen and Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Fisher bogeyed the first and second holes to remove himself from contention early on and, with the wind swirling tempestuously around the Gary Player Country Club, firing at the flags was a treacherous business and it prevented anyone from shooting the really low round that was needed to challenge Westwood.
Goosen claimed five birdies in the first 14 holes to make the biggest move up the leaderboard, but in trying to hit his second on to the green from the rough on the 17th, he sent the ball into the water to drop a shot to put him into a tie for third with Jimenez.
