GERMANY BEAT SCOTLAND
IN WORLD CUP-PLAY BUT
TOP MARKS TO MONTY
AND MARC WARREN
They say that nobody remembers who comes second in a golf tournament. But Scots golf enthusiasts will remember the great performance by Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren in the World Cup that had such an exciting finish on Sunday.
Scotland and Germany tied for the lead on 16-under-par 268 after the regulation 72 holes at Sandy Lane Golf Resort, Barbados today.
Then Germany's Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem, pictured right with Langer on the right, took the title and the $1.4million first prize with a pitch-and-putt par 3 at the first hole of the sudden-death play-off.
Both Langer and Colin Montgomerie missed the green with their tee shots. Warren pitched to four or five feet past the flagstick from the rough. Siem chipped to 2ft. Monty missed his putt to save par for the Scots but Langer holed his to give the Germans a winning par.
A last-round 66, during a final day when there was a two-hour suspension of play during tottential rain, was a terrific performance by Langer and Siem. They overtook six teams during their surge to the front.
It was the second time that veteran Langer has been in a winning German team. The first was 16 years ago in Florida - where the 49-year-old Bernhard now lives - when Torsten Gideon was his partner.
Langer's caddie for the World Cup was his 16-year-old son Stefan with whom he won the big Father-Son tournament in Florida last week.
"I haven't won many events over the past year or two. Now I win twice in two weeks. It just shows the golf ball doesn't know how old you are," said the former Ryder Cup captain who will be playing the US Champions' (Seniors) Tour next summer.
The Germans had set the clubhouse target of 268 with a closing round of 66 in the foursomes format. They birdied the sixth, eighth, 11th, 12th, 15th and 16th - but bogeyed the 17th, which left the door open for the Scots.
Montgomerie and Warren were one shot ahead of the field with six holes to play when the teams ahead of them at the start of the day, Argentina and Sweden faltered.
Then the Scots, who did not have a single bogey over the the last round, were 16 under par with three holes to play, having gained birdies at the fifth and short 11th and parred all the other holes.
WARREN PHILOSOPHICAL
They could not get the birdie they needed at any of the last few holes which would have won the title outright. They finished on 69 for 268.
"It's just one of those things," said Warren later. "Tough putt ... We needed to leave ourselves an easier putt. That's just the way it goes."
Montgomerie declined to speak with reporters afterward.
Sweden's Henrik Stenson and Carl Pettersson were level with the Scots and the Germans until they bogeyed the 18th after birdies at the 12th and 13th had lifted them to 16 under par.
Overnight leaders Argentina finished with a 73 to drop down to joint fifth place.
Defending champions Wales came joint eighth with a closing 71 for 273

FINAL TOTALS
Par 284 (4 x 71)
268 GERMANY (B Langer & M Siem) 65 69 68 66, SCOTLAND (C Montgomerie & M Warren) 67 67 65 69 (Germany won play-off at first extra hole).
269 SWEDEN (H Stenson & C Pettersson) 64 70 63 72.
270 SOUTH AFRICA (R Sabbatini & R Sterne) 64 71 67 68.
271 SPAIN (M A Jimenez & G Fernandez) 69 66 67 69, UNITED STATES (S Cink & J J Henry) 66 73 63 69, ARGENTINA (A Cabrera & A Romero) 64 67 67 73.
273 WALES (B Dredge & S Dodd) 65 75 62 71, AUSTRALIA 68 72 64 69, MEXICO 69 68 65 71, ITALY 68 70 64 71.
275 SWITZERLAND 73 70 64 68, IRELAND (P Harrington & P McGinley) 67 73 66 69.
277 COLOMBIA 67 74 66 70.
278 CANADA 69 72 77 71, ENGLAND 66 70 70 72.
280 SINGAPORE 71 72 68 69.
281 DENMARK 70 70 71 70.
Other totals:
283 South Korea.
285 France.
288 Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago.
289 Japan.
295 Jamaica.

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