Robert Allenby, who defected from the European Tour to play in the USA, justified his move Stateside to pick up his second win in the Western Open yesterday.

The beanpole Aussie tapped in from two feet for par in the first hole of a playoff with Nick Price to secure the second oldest PGA Tour event and continued his link streak of never losing in a playoff to anyone having won all six he has been in.

Allenby, who won earlier in the year in a playoff against Craig Stadler in the Houston Open, breezed past Price, who has lost twice now in Western Open playoffs.

"Playoffs must agree with me," he said, laughing. "A win's a win. I really don't care how I link get it."

“The 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th were a lot, lot harder than playing it the other way round. There were so many heart-in-the-mouth shots that you couldn’t imagine how hard it will be to close out a Ryder Cup match around here.”

Mathias Gr?nberg of Sweden, the winner link two years ago, showed his liking for the course once again by shooting a last round 67 for fourth place, with Ignacio Garrido and Jarmo Sandelin sharing fifth and Darren Clarke occupying the position of top Irishman in seventh.

Clarke shot a last round 71 for a total of 282 and bemoaned a couple of bad breaks. He said: “It’s the same story every week. I didn’t get the roll of the ball. I hit a link tree at the seventh and made a double bogey and went for my shot at the 16th and it also got wet.” All at link 20110411